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Closing the gap
Working parents need more affordable childcare, more places for their children and more support from employers, according to a new MORI survey commissioned by Daycare Trust for National Childcare Week (May 20-27). 93% of parents in the study want an increase in affordable, quality childcare available to all children aged twelve months or older, and the charity calls for children's centres to be set up in every neighbourhood to meet the needs of children and parents.
'All Our Futures' - the Daycare Trust report - assesses progress since the launch of the National Childcare Strategy in May 1998. Certainly, the gap in childcare services has closed. From one place for every nine children under the age of eight in 1997, there was one place for every seven children in 2000. But while the report shows a substantial increase in the number of day nurseries and out of school clubs, it reveals a 23% fall in the number of childminders - the most affordable childcare option for parents.
The Government has pledged to create one million new places for 1.6 million children by 2004, including 900 new neighbourhood nurseries in the most disadvantaged communities and 100 early excellence centres.
The Daycare Trust report goes a step further in calling for children's centres to be set up in every neighbourhood to streamline childcare services and make them comprehensive for all children and parents who need them. It [also] argues for a single childcare budget to simplify the 45 funding streams currently available for developing childcare, and a review of financial help for parents towards the costs of childcare.
'Parents are clearly beginning to notice the improvements in childcare in this country,' says Stephen Burke, Director of Daycare Trust, 'but for many parents, more affordable quality childcare is still a key priority. Parents, particularly those on lower incomes, face a daily struggle with a fragmented patchwork of provision'.
'Creating children's centres in every neighbourhood - building on the new nurseries, early excellence centres and Sure Start programmes - would give every child and every family the services they want and need. Children's centres are the key to investing in our future.'
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