News

Parents in poverty still face an uphill struggle to find suitable care for their children, a new report suggests.

The lack of decent quality, affordable child care with hours that correspond to available local jobs is still preventing parents from finding employment or gaining new skills, according to research by the Daycare Trust.

Although there has been an increase in the number of registered child care places, nearly all are in the private sector and are too expensive for many parents, especially those with several young children.

The number of public and voluntary sector provided places has declined, and the typical cost of a nursery place for a child under two is now £128 a week.

The government has responded by introducing the child care element of the working tax credit, but the average award is less than £50 a week and all parents have to pay at least 30 per cent of the cost of each place.

The government has also created new child care places in the 20 per cent most deprived areas through initiatives such as neighbourhood nurseries, Sure Start and children’s centres. But 46 per cent of children living in poor households do not live in the neighbourhoods where these initiatives are targeted so are not benefiting from the places.

Even those families living in the targeted 20 per cent of areas are not guaranteed child care places, the report points out. For example there are only 80,000 Sure Start places - just one for every 11 children living in Sure Start areas.

All three and four year olds are now entitled to a free part-time nursery place, but these are typically for two-and-a-half hours a day, and sometime for only three days a week. Such restricted hours are unlikely to offer parents’ the time to earn enough money to lift their children out of poverty.

The Daycare Trust argues that the government’s welfare to work and anti-poverty strategies are being put at risk because of the lack of affordable, suitable child care for disadvantaged families.

Meanwhile, a separate report has found that families and friends are bridging the child care gap for over two-thirds of working mothers.

Seventy per cent of employed women use informal child care and 42 per cent of working lone parents use only informal child care during term time, rising to 71 per cent during the school holidays.

The report points out that there is only one formal child care place for every five children under the age of eight.

Families in disadvantaged areas use other relatives and friends to meet their child care needs more than families living in less disadvantaged areas, the report adds.

The authors of the report, the Daycare Trust and One Parent Families have called on the government to enhance schemes to allow relatives and informal carers to register as child care providers and to ensure that children’s centres provide support to informal carers.

They are also asking the government to provide opportunities for parents to experience formal child care through a series of taster sessions and explore child care packages to support the transition to work for lone parents.

- Facing the Childcare Challenge: Is the National Strategy Reaching all Parents? £5 from the Daycare Trust, 21 St George’s Road, London SE1 6ES, 020 7840 3350

- Informal Childcare: Bridging the Childcare Gap for families £5 from the Daycare Trust and One Parent Families, 020 7840 3350.