When Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pulled out of his red box a promise to give all working parents funded childcare – the government believed it had conjured up a top-tier vote-winning policy. Under pressure to bolster a dwindling workforce – and fully aware that household budgets were being crippled by the cost of childcare –in a somewhat surprise move working parents were promised that a policy of 30 hours of ‘free’ childcare a week was on its way. It was, many said at the time, a scheme too good to be true? And with the first phase set to come into force within weeks – there are fears critics of t…
