Funding for 15 hours of free nursery education for two-to-three-year-olds is set to be paid directly to parents, if the Budget is approved, after the Government failed to reach an agreement with early-years providers.

Education Minister Rob Ward confirmed that the money would be paid in arrears to parents, and would be worth around £6,100 per year for a family with a two- to three-year-old in nursery.

As part of the Government’s 2026 Budget proposals, an additional £3m was set aside to extend free nursery hours for those aged between two and three.

However, the Jersey Early Years Association has been locked in negotiations with the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department since the announcement amid concerns that some providers may not be able to offer the extended hours due to uncertainty over how the number of additional hours would be covered, whether the provision would be universal, and the extra cost required.

During a Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel hearing this morning, Deputy Ward said that his department “haven’t had the wider buy-in” that he had expected from nursery education providers.

He said: “The 15 hours of paid two-to-three nursery hours – at £11 an hour – has to go through the Government Plan.

“We have had really good communications with the childminders, who are on board, and the final stages of how that will work is happening with them.

“I am surprised that that hasn’t happened with the nurseries. We developed the rate with an officer from Economic Development so that they were purposefully independent from the department, so they were looking at that with the Jersey Early Years Association.”

The Minister added that an uplift to a rate of £11 was proposed by the Education Department to encourage providers to offer the free hours.

“I think that is a fair rate and that is the rate going forward,” Deputy Ward said.

“We cannot move forward on that in terms of it being a Nursery Education Fund at the moment – although the door is still open for nurseries, some nurseries have accepted that, to step up and say ‘we’d like to be part of that’.

“We are working at pace and actively to create a system where we can pay that direct to parents. So nurseries can just carry on doing what they are doing, providing the hours at the rate they are providing the hours, and then parents can claim that money back.

“It will be in arrears, but if we get this through the Assembly, and we have the system that we have which is ready to go, nearly, it will be available from January but in arrears.”

Deputy Ward said that the extension of free nursery provision to the younger age group was designed to help parents return to work and that he would personally like to see the extra time extended beyond 15 hours in the future.

Asked whether the move is intended as a first step towards expanding childcare hours, Deputy Ward replied: “I cannot speak for future governments, but if it was me, then yes. I think it is an identified need in our society.

“This is worth £6,127 a year – I think that is the correct figure – for a family with a child of two- to three years old in nursery. That is significant money.

“Of course it would be great to extend that. Getting money out of Treasury is not the easiest thing on earth. I thought that would be the most difficult part but we have the money to start for 15 hours term-time only and I think, yes, it is a first step.”

Deputy Ward explained that there would be a number of “checks and balances” in place to apply for the funding as a parent, including requiring receipts and social security number, with the system due to be developed within the first year of its existence.

Several nurseries have raised concerns about their ability to cope with increased demand, while Busy Bees made the “difficult decision” recently to close its toddler and pre-school rooms for up to a year because of staffing issues.

The Budget is due to be debated next month.