Proposed Children and Families (Wales) Measure

Consultation Response

CF11 Annex 1 - Daycare Trust

Childcare and child poverty
Alison Garnham
Joint-Chief Executive, Daycare Trust

Childcare in the UK is expensive, and children from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to benefit from formal childcare - even the free entitlement to early years education.  Yet, childcare and early years has huge benefits for children and research shows that if we want to tackle disadvantage, it must be in the early years, as bright but disadvantaged children already fall behind their less talented, but better off, counterparts before the start of school.  

Reducing and eventually eliminating child poverty cannot realistically be achieved without the development of national, high quality, affordable, early childhood education and care services. This is true for a two main reasons. First, parents, in particular mothers, cannot engage in paid work and help improve family incomes without comprehensive, accessible and affordable childcare services. Gender and poverty are closely linked and Government efforts to increase the proportion of mothers in work, whether lone parents or partners of unemployed men, cannot take place without the necessary national service infrastructure in place along with the reassurance that their children are well cared for in high quality settings. This would justify investment in early education and care on grounds of equality alone. Despite the fact that many families state a preference for informal care, this is not available to all, so cannot be the basis of a national employment activation policy, nor are the benefits for children entirely clear.

Second, there is now substantial evidence that children benefit from high quality early education and care and that it is the most disadvantaged children who benefit the most. For them, the effects are the most long-lasting. This process of evening-out inequalities and helping more children to start school on a level playing field has enormous implications for future generations and means ambition to end child poverty can reach into the future as well as helping families today.  

"Preparing them for school... it’s good for them to be around other children.  Because a lot of time you can’t afford to take them places where they will meet other children so you’re stuck in the house.” Lone mother of a four-year old son, Sheffield1  

"Because my son has been in nursery since 8 months it’s helped him a lot.  He can communicate with friends well, he’s not like shy, not attached to me, so I’m glad in a way I did it from young and he’s really like good at speaking and playing and interacting so it’s helping him really has.” Black Caribbean parent, Birmingham2

If the twin ambitions set out above are to be achieved, early childhood education and care services must be accessible and affordable and above all of high quality - it is only high quality childcare that delivers improved outcomes for children. At present we still have some way to go on all three of these areas.

Accessibility

There have been substantial increases in childcare availability, although since 2004 this increase appears to have stalled. Despite these increases, there is still lower take-up amongst children from disadvantaged groups. Children from black and minority ethnic groups, low income families, lone parent families and especially those with disabilities and special educational needs, are much less likely to use childcare or have facilities available for them to use.  Without accessible childcare for these families - and outreach to encourage take-up - these children will not benefit from high quality early years experiences.  

Current gaps in availability include care during the school holidays and out-of-school care for secondary school aged children. There is also a dearth of places for families working atypical hours.  Daycare Trust’s own childcare costs survey recently found that 59 per cent of Family Information Services said that there was not currently sufficient childcare for children aged 12 and over, and 27 percent said there was not sufficient childcare for under fives, which has typically been the area of most supply. This will have a huge impact on the Government’s welfare reform agenda, with more families of older children needing childcare. More detailed evidence on sufficiency is becoming available through local authorities’ sufficiency assessments. A number of these have been published and 93 percent of authorities’ report some gaps, including childcare before and after school, holiday care, provision for children with disabilities and special educational needs, and care for under twos.

Affordability

There are a number of subsidies and initiatives aimed at reducing the cost of childcare for parents, but childcare in the UK still remains very expensive, with costs increasing year on year. Daycare Trust’s 2009 cost survey found average costs for a full time nursery place for child under two was £167 per week, and substantially higher - £226 a week - in Inner London, where child poverty is a serious issue. Without a concerted effort to reduce the cost of childcare for parents, it is difficult to see how parents will be able to take up work and give their children the early learning experiences that will give them the positive outcomes we all strive for. Parents have access to free places once their child is three (or two in some areas), as well as childcare support through tax credits and childcare vouchers, but this is only a patchwork of support and is very vulnerable to changes in employment. The Childcare Affordability Programme (CAP) - which has been helping parents with the high costs of childcare in the capital, and testing innovative work such as paying for childcare costs while parents seek work - is coming to an end later this year, and although some boroughs will continue to pilot help with childcare costs, some parents will no longer be eligible for CAP funding.  We need a more holistic approach to childcare funding if we are to see real progress in tackling child poverty, so that both children and their parents can be sure of the consistency of funding and of childcare provision.  

Quality

In order to see improved outcomes for children, the childcare they attend must be of high quality; therefore, it is only through high quality childcare that we will break cycles of child poverty.  Quality of childcare is steadily being improved but there is a long way to go. According to Ofsted, the proportion of daycare providers inspected with good or outstanding childcare had risen from 53 percent in 2005-06 to 64 percent in 2007-08, though the proportion of childminders judged good or outstanding has fallen from 65 percent to 59. Both of these statistics still leave around 40 percent of providers who are only satisfactory, or in very few cases (three percent), inadequate.

As quality is also shown to be higher in maintained settings3, integrated centres and settings with highly qualified staff and low child:staff ratios, we need to enable all settings to be of this quality. Given that the workforce is so key in achieving high quality provision, it is disappointing that the childcare workforce is not more highly regarded. Qualification levels are improving, but there are still only 54 percent qualified to Level 3 (A Levels). In its 'Next steps for early learning and childcare’ strategy document, the Government suggests that qualification requirements may be raised to Level 3 for the entire childcare workforce, which would be extremely welcome. There needs to be improved pay and status to match these higher qualifications.  The Early Years Professional status is encouraging childcare staff to undertake further training, but there is no pay scale attached to this 'status’ therefore its scope may be limited as nurseries will still only be able to offer modest salaries which may mean that staff turnover is still high.

Further investment is needed if childcare is to make the difference to child poverty that we know it is capable of. In England (as well as the USA) parental income is a big determinant of the educational success of their children. However, in Sweden and Denmark, there is little correlation between parents’ educational attainment, and therefore income, and that of their children. In Denmark, the odds that a child of low-educated parents will complete secondary school are 1:2 compared to 1:5 in the UK. This success in breaking the link between parental income and children’s outcomes is at least partly due to well subsidised care and good quality provision.

There have been huge leaps in the last 10 years for low-income families’ access to childcare and we will continue to see the benefits of that investment in years to come.  If the government holds to its promise to end child poverty, and continues to invest in childcare, the rewards for children, families and wider society will be even greater.  

March 2009

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1 From Listening to lone parents about childcare, Daycare Trust July 2007.

2 From Listening to black and minority ethnic parents about childcare, Daycare Trust, July 2007.

3 Maintained provision is likely to be of higher quality because of the terms and conditions offered to staff, access to other resources and lower staff turnover.