By Eniola Amadu
Plaid Cymru has pledged to provide free childcare for all children aged nine months to four years if it forms the next Welsh government.
Party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth announced the plan during Plaid’s annual conference in Swansea, saying the “transformative” policy would offer at least 20 hours of free childcare a week for 48 weeks each year by 2031.
He said it would give families “a helping hand with the things that matter the most.”
Ap Iorwerth told delegates that Plaid Cymru was “ready to lead the country right now,” arguing that “Labour’s time is up” after holding power in Wales since the start of devolution in 1999.
The next Senedd election is scheduled for May 2026.
Under the plan, free childcare would be made available to all families regardless of income or employment status, making Wales the first UK nation to offer such a universal scheme.
The party estimates the proposal could be worth around £32,500 to families over the first four years of a child’s life.
At present, childcare support in Wales applies mainly to working parents, students, or families living in specific “Flying Start” areas.
Families earning less than £100,000 are entitled to 30 hours of free care for children aged three to four, while some two-year-olds in selected areas receive 12.5 hours per week.
Plaid’s policy would extend free childcare to every family, starting with 20 hours a week for children aged nine months to two years.
The scheme would be rolled out in three stages over the next parliamentary term and completed by 2031.
Ap Iorwerth said the plan would be funded from within the existing Welsh government budget, estimating that by the end of the rollout, annual spending on childcare would reach about £800m.
He said about £400m could be made available in the next budget if other services rise with inflation. “This is money that we know we can afford,” he said.
Party officials said universal childcare would ensure equality and consistency, arguing that all families, including higher earners, face financial pressure.
They also described the offer as the most generous in the UK.
A former BBC Wales journalist, Ap Iorwerth used his speech to position Plaid as a credible alternative to Labour and Reform UK.
He criticised Nigel Farage’s movement for promoting division, saying: “Farage and his followers drive the deliberate fragmentation of society, giving life to the bogeyman without whom they are nothing.”
He accused Reform of trying to use the Senedd as a “plaything” to gain “an electoral foothold” and said the 2026 election would not be a vote on independence.
However, he added that it would “kick-start the national debate on independence” by establishing a permanent commission on Wales’s constitutional future.
In interviews ahead of the conference, Ap Iorwerth said: “There’s no referendum… in the next few years,” but he stressed that Plaid would build on the work of previous constitutional commissions.
Ap Iorwerth also promised an “immediate cash injection” for the NHS to address long waiting times, warning that Reform UK threatened “US-style bills.”
He reaffirmed his party’s commitment to keeping the health service “free at point of need.”
He urged voters to back Plaid as a new force in Welsh politics: “We are not here as Labour’s conscience, we are not here to repair Labour, we are here to replace them.”
Closing his address, he called on supporters and undecided voters alike to “stop Reform and elect a government more radical, more ambitious, more impatient to bring about positive change.”
He was met with cheers and a standing ovation as he concluded that Plaid Cymru was prepared to “usher in an age of new leadership that will set Wales on a different path.”
