Two thirds of poorest families in UK miss out on childcare

By Dr. Tim Sandle
December 8, 2024
DIGITAL JOURNAL

Children enjoy a Christmas magic show at the Flower Garland kindergarten - Copyright AFP Michael Zhang

A collection of progressive pressure groups have called on the UK Labour government to ‘think differently’ when it comes to childcare. This is based on new analysis that reveals the English local authorities with lowest numbers of childcare places. The survey shows Walsall ranked worst.

The associated report extrapolates the data and predicts that at current rate of decline, there will be no childminders left by 2033. The report comes from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) – an independent charity working towards a fairer, greener, and more prosperous society and Save the Children, which is active in one hundred countries.

Concluding the report The childcare challenge: How can the new government deliver a real early education and childcare guarantee?, the campaign organisations state that the UK government must ensure deprived and rural areas are not left behind in forthcoming childcare expansion. In other words, public policy needs to focused on equalising the disparity throughout the UK.

The report indicates that the expansion of free childcare currently underway is at risk of not delivering for poorer families. Amongst the poorest fifth of parents with young children, only a third (36 per cent) use formal childcare, compared to double that (73 percent) of the highest earning households.

The analysis indicates how the use of formal childcare is highly defined by social class. Over two-thirds of parents of young children who work in professional jobs such as lawyers, doctors and architects use it, compared to less than half of parents in elementary occupations such as cleaners, care workers and hairdressers.

Further analysis by the think tank of local access to private and voluntary nurseries as well as childminders – who deliver nearly all provision for children under three years of age – finds significant variation in access to childcare within a reasonable travel time by local authority, with deprived and rural areas the worst off.

The more deprived or more rural a local area is, the fewer and lower-quality childcare options families tend to have. The most deprived areas have 32 percent fewer places per child and 25 per cent fewer good places compared to the most affluent areas.

Rural areas have 31 percent fewer places and 29 per cent fewer good places compared to inner cities and town centres. For example, three in four children in Walsall live in areas that have some of the worst access to childcare in England.

There are significant regional and local variations. For example, parts of the North-East have five times the average ratio of childcare places to children. However, other parts of the same Combined Authority are amongst the least well served in the country. Part of this problem is driven by the falling numbers of childminders. At the current rate – a drop of around 3,000 childminders per year.

Another issue is the lack of places in school-based nurseries. Whilst the number of schools offering nursery provision has grown since 2018, the headcount of children in primary school nurseries has reduced by 14 percent (the equivalent of 42,000 children) between 2015/16 and 2023/24.

To remediate the situation, the report urgest the Starmer government to adopt progressive and leftwing policies, such as:

• Establishing new not-for-profit nursery trusts to rival private equity backed for-profit chains, with the aim of helping smaller childcare providers with business support, best practice and achieve the same economies of scale as larger groups.
• Reinvigorating the role of local authorities including by pooling funding to secure new childcare in the areas of greatest need and more actively brokering the new schools-based nursery expansion.
• Growing and supporting the supply of childminders by developing a new long-term national strategy which sees them paid monthly to deliver funded entitlements and explores a new childminder friendly national digital platform.
• Increasing funding for deprived areas and children through raising the Early Years Pupil Premium and increasing weighting for Additional Need in the national formula.
• Reforming the funding system, giving greater recognition to emerging needs in early years within mainstream funding.

These proposals attempt to deal with childcare deserts, a lack of funding and the patchwork of commissioning services.