The existing 30-hour offer for working parents of three- and four-year-olds will be suspended for three months and replaced with the scheme.
Under the new plans, councils will be able to use funding from the Welsh Government’s childcare offer to support registered childcare providers to care for pre-school-aged children of critical workers and vulnerable children.
The changes will cover the next three months and provide care for under-fives.
The Welsh Government said it would continue to pay childcare providers for the hours of childcare already booked under the childcare offer for three months.
Deputy minister for health and social care Julie Morgan, said, ‘It’s of paramount importance that parents who are critical workers - those on our frontline - do not face barriers in the fight against coronavirus.
‘We’re at a point where most families are caring for their children at home, so now it makes sense to look at what more we can do with our childcare funding, especially in support of those working on our frontline.
‘The coronavirus childcare assistance scheme will ensure parents, who are critical workers, will get the childcare they need, and childcare providers will have security about how their businesses will operate.
‘I also want to pay tribute to our childcare providers, including our Flying Start settings, who have stayed open to care for these children. This has helped support our response to coronavirus and to provide safe care for those who need it at a particularly challenging time.’
Guidance about the new arrangements will be published shortly.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said, ‘There is a need to support those delivering emergency childcare for critical workers who are helping the country respond to the coronavirus outbreak. We are aware of nurseries who are staying open that are losing hundreds of pounds a day.
‘While we welcome the immediate funding to nurseries who are open, when the country starts to return to business as usual we will need providers and their teams to be ready and in place to deliver childcare for working families. The Welsh Government has extended the small business grant scheme to more nurseries, which will also be a welcome relief for many in the short term.
‘Childcare providers are facing incredibly challenging times, both trying to remain open to provide emergency childcare but also thinking of their long-term survival. There are still unanswered questions about the ability of nurseries to be able to rotate their staff to stay open. Even if nurseries can furlough staff they still have rents, mortgages and other costs to think about. In this climate, many nurseries that close don’t know whether they will be able to re-open again.'
She added that the new economic resilience fund was currently only available to those businesses that are VAT registered, which many nurseries aren’t able to do.
'We need the Welsh Government to recognise this gap in the support to all childcare businesses to provide access to this extra help at this critical time.’
