'Bureaucracy stifles childcare growth'

The Government's National Childcare Strategy is in danger of failing to reach its target of creating one million new childcare places by 2004 because of an excess of bureaucracy and a failure to encourage the entrepreneurial ventures of providers, according to a report from an influential think-tank published today. The report, Cr che Barriers: How Britain can grow its childcare industry, claims that the institutional arrangements the Government has put in place are, in some cases, stifling growth. It says Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships in England have suffered from a number of weaknesses, including the absence of strategic...