DfE costing better childcare support for teachers, minister reveals

The government is costing up a proposal to offer teachers and social care workers more financial childcare support, schools minister Jonathan Gullis has revealed.

But it is not clear how any potential scheme will differ from the government’s current offer of 30 hours a week of free childcare for families in all professions.

Speaking at an Education Policy Institute fringe at the Conservative Party conference, Gullis said improving teacher recruitment and retention was one of his top priorities in the role.

“Could we look at how we could fund potentially, let’s say 30 hours of funded childcare for someone whose household’s got a teacher in it, or children’s social care worker, whether that’s one to four or three to four [years old], if you could do 30 hours on that?

“How much is that freeing up incentivising people to come into the profession?”

Gullis said he was “not saying teachers are more important than nurses”, adding that “other departments have to look at other people in their own sectors”.

He also said he would “probably get told off for this because [it’s something] I’m not meant to be talking about.

Challenged on the fact that teachers already qualify for the government’s 30 hour free childcare offer, Gullis claimed some did not because of their earnings.

But the earnings restriction only affects households where one or both parents make £100,000 a year after tax and other deductions.

He said: “I want to look at how we could potentially extend it for the teaching profession, social care workers and stuff like that.

“We’re running up the numbers to see how much that would be. And obviously, bearing in mind the government’s doing a lot to invest in growth, whether that money is there is a challenge that I’m gonna have to overcome, but certainly [it’s] an ambition I’d like to explore.”

It comes after the Sun on Sunday reported that the government is considering extending the school day to 4pm to help with childcare.

Gullis ‘hopes’ for grammars legislation before election

During the fringe, Schools Week asked Gullis, a leading supporter of selective education, whether the government would attempt to lift the ban on new grammar schools before the next election.

He said “no date has been bid for nor has been set regarding any potential legislation lifting the ban on grammar schools”.

“So will it be this parliament session? The answer is I don’t know at this moment in time.”

But he said the prime minister Liz Truss had “made her pledges very clear” during the leadership contest, and the education secretary Kit Malthouse had “followed those up” in an interview with the Yorkshire Post in which he said he had tasked officials with looking at feasibility.

“My views are very much on the record. So I would hope that there will be before the next election legislation brought forward to lift that ban.”