Charity criticises child care strategy

The government’s drive to end child poverty
will fail if it relies on the targeted area-based initiatives
contained in the National Childcare Strategy, child care charity
the Daycare Trust has warned.

The strategy’s market-led and area-based
approach creates large regional variations in the level and pattern
of child care provision, so that access to child care depends on
where families live, their income and their employment status.

The warning is contained in a report prepared
for the trust, which argues that investment in universal child care
– delivered through integrated child care and early years services
in children’s centres – is key to tackling child poverty. It urges
that the government needs to build on the nearly universal
provision of part-time pre-school education for three- and
four-year-olds.

The paper also highlights the negative impact
on child care service provision of limited pay and career
opportunities for child care staff, recruitment and retention
problems, a tax credit system for working parents which leaves out
many families who want and need child care services, and insecure
funding.

– Meeting the Child Poverty Challenge: Why
Universal Childcare is Key to Ending Child Poverty from 020
7840 3350