News

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