Guidance needed for families reclaiming childcare

More guidance for parents claiming back money from the government's childcare funding scheme is needed, the head of the Jersey Child Care Trust (JCCT) has said.

In February, the government said parents of a child eligible from January to August 2026 could apply for up to £4,180, and parents of children eligible for a full school year from the 1 September 2026 would be able to apply for up to £6,270.

But some families have had problems claiming money back from the States after being told they had provided 'invalid receipts' for childcare.

JCCT CEO Fiona Vacher said as it was a pilot scheme, it was likely problems would be discovered.

She said: "We understand that there have been some cases through our contacts with parents and I think that's around parents submitting bills rather than receipts.

"We knew there would be difficulties and I know the government is just responding to that."

Vacher said the government could provide "a bit more information for parents about how they and what they submit".

Deputy Catherine Curtis, the Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, said 537 applications had been approved for 409 families with £1.4m paid out since the scheme began.

She added that no formal complaints had been recorded but that feedback was "being reviewed to enable continuous improvement".

Vacher said the repayments made a difference for some families "between actually being able to access childcare and not".

"For some families that means being able to go to work, for other families it means a bit of breathing space for them, there might be siblings, additional needs in the home, additional difficulties, and it really does help," she explained.

"Children have their best start, having a good experience in early years, and for families as well feeling more supported financially, but also in time."

Islander Rose Dowden has two young children, with another on the way, and said childcare was still too expensive.

She said she felt her only option was to have her children close together so she could be off work for the shortest time possible.

"I probably would have had a little bit more time in between to recover, I pretty much shunned the back-to-back because we need to go back to work," she said.

"If I had other options, then I would have exercised and considered all the options available to me, but we felt we only had one option."

The mother of two said being able to pay upfront and claim back the costs was "just not a viable option for us at the moment".

The JCCT said it would pay the funds upfront for those who needed it - Deputy Curtis said 35 families had benefitted from this support totalling £63,000.

Chair of Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel Deputy Victoria Li questioned how smoothly the pilot had been working and if more could be done to make the process easier for families.

She said: "We know there is a number of rejections of applications and I think one of the top reasons is the invalid receipt.

Li added that it was important to support parents for the future.

She said: "We want to make sure that all our support is targeted and I think for the whole state assembly they would agree with me that the early prevention will work far better than later intervention.

"A lot of issues that we see nowadays in education, if we can get into being early, provide high quality early childcare, we're supporting the parents to feel comfortable and confident to go back to their workforce as well."

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