With soaring childcare prices and increasing reports of children falling behind in Welsh schools, it is no surprise that education and childcare have been at the heart of the 2026 election.

In August 2025, the BBC shared that 18% of pupils were persistently absent in the 2024/25 school year – down from 23% in 2023 but still higher than pre-pandemic levels of around 11%.

Childcare has also been the subject of much discussion with The Bevan Foundation, drawing on data from Coram Family and Childcare’s 2025 survey report, noting that average childcare costs for a child aged 2 and under are significantly higher in Wales than in England and Scotland.

They shared that Welsh parents spend, on average, £2,600 more a year to send a child aged under 2 to nursery full-time than English families.

So what education and childcare policies have been proposed by the six major parties ahead of the Senedd election?

Curriculum changes

Plaid Cymru, if elected, pledges to undertake a review of the Curriculum for Wales to ensure it is “effectively delivering both the breadth and depth of subject-specific knowledge that students in Wales need.”

The party also pledges to support teachers in implementing the curriculum, saying it will provide additional guidance and resources to set out clear expectations for progression across the curriculum.

Proposing a curriculum that prepares “young people for the world they will inherit”, the Wales Green Party aims to develop a school curriculum that combines learning and play.

The party says it should include eco-literacy, health and wellbeing education, food literacy and relationships education inclusive of LGBTQIA relationships, as well as civic education that prepares students for democratic participation.

In contrast, Reform UK wants to amend the Curriculum for Wales to ensure a focus on subjects such as maths and science - promising to remove “ideological content” that has “crept into lessons”.

The party also says it will raise the minimum age at which “explicit sexual content” can be taught in schools, saying sex education should be “age-appropriate, factual, and focused on safeguarding.”

The Welsh Conservatives propose similar changes, saying they will re-establish the right for parents to withdraw their children from sex education lessons.

Overall, the Conservatives propose significantly fewer changes to the curriculum but do have plans to scrap the Welsh Baccalaureate.

Mandatory Home Economics lessons also feature in the party’s manifesto, designed to ensure pupils develop “essential life-skills” such as budgeting, how to manage a home, and how to prepare a healthy meal.

Welsh Labour also proposes few curriculum changes, but does emphasise plans to introduce targeted literary and numeracy support for pupils in Year 6 and 7 to help in the transition to secondary school.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats do not propose any curriculum changes.

Childcare

All of the major parties, with the exception of Reform UK, have pledged to improve childcare in their Senedd manifestos.

Currently, working parents in Wales earning less then £100,000 are entitled to 30 hours of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds - and in some areas families can receive 12.5 hours a week for children aged two.

Pledging to deliver a “transformative and universal” childcare offer, Plaid Cymru says it will “build progressively” to offer funded childcare for 20 hours a week, 48 weeks a year for all children.

The party says it will continue to honour the existing 30-hour offer for parents in work, education, or training of three- and four-year-olds.

Plaid says the plan would be rolled out over the course of the seventh Senedd term, with the policy fully implemented in the 2030/31 financial year.

The Wales Green Party presents a similar policy, pledging to introduce universal childcare for children aged nine months to four years without requiring parents to work a minimum number of hours, if elected.

It says existing childcare schemes will be unified into a “single, simpler system” available for 48 weeks a year.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats also pledge to offer universal childcare from nine months to four years for 30 hours a week, 48 weeks a year.

Welsh Labour says it will phase-in funded childcare to babies aged nine-months-old, pledging to create 20,000 new funded childcare spaces as part of the plan.

However, the party does not specify whether this plan would be universal, nor how many hours of funded childcare would be offered.

Similarly the Welsh Conservatives also propose to extend free childcare to children aged nine months to four years but do not specify whether this would be universally offered.

The Tories present a second childcare policy, which would give parents the choice to nominate a grandparent to receive a “Grandparent Childcare Payment” of up to £4,800 per year to care for their grandchildren.

Reform UK does not present any childcare policies in its manifesto.

Additional Learning Needs

Pledging to strengthen the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) system, the Wales Green Party says it will ensure schools are fully accessible for disabled students, and expand early intervention for children who require additional support.

Plaid Cymru makes similar commitments within its manifesto, promising to “simplify and clarify” the ALN system for schools and colleges, learners, and families.

The party says it will make ALN training mandatory for all teachers and teaching assistants if elected, both as part of initial teacher training and ongoing professional development.

It also aims to expand Welsh-medium ALN provision, to ensure that children and their families can access support in their first or target language.

Welsh Labour also commits to bettering the ALN system in Wales, sharing that if re-elected the party will set up a new ALN advocacy service to help learners and their families.

Similarly to Plaid, Labour says it will ensure all school staff are trained to support children with additional learning needs.

Reform UK says it will undertake a review of the ALN system, pledging to end “postcode lotteries, support special schools, and ensure mainstream teachers are not left to manage complex needs without specialist support.”

The Welsh Conservatives commit to reviewing legislation and support arrangements for pupils with additional learning needs.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats do not present any policies on Additional Learning Needs.

Free School Meals

To help reduce inequality and ensure that every child has access to healthy and nutritious food, the Wales Green Party is proposing to extend universal free school meals to secondary schools.

Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour make similar commitments, pledging to extend free school meals to pupils in secondary schools from households receiving Universal Credit.

Free school meals also feature in the Lib Dem manifesto, with the party pledging to provide “eligible children” with free school meals throughout the school holidays.

The Welsh Conservatives and Reform UK do not mention free school meals in their manifesto, however.

Discussing the challenges facing the next Welsh Government, Daniel Maney, senior Wales organiser for the National Education Union, said: “NEU Cymru members are clear - the next Welsh Government needs to fully fund the education system in Wales, trust the workforce, and end child poverty."

“We're concerned about proposals around free schools and academies here in Wales. We know from our colleagues in England that academisation has meant an attack on terms and conditions, with schools run for private interest, not to support children and their learning."

“The next Welsh Government has an opportunity now to make education a priority, support the workforce, and make sure young people can reach their full potential.”