Analysis: Childcare and early years survey - Showing the way to go
The latest survey of parents taking up childcare provides plenty of deeper explanations for what families want and need, says Eva Lloyd.
Judging from the press coverage following the publication of the 2007 Childcare and Early Years Survey undertaken by the National Centre for Social Research for the DCSF, you might have thought that the Ten-Year Strategy for Childcare launched in 2004 had failed entirely. Now that the dust has settled, it is important to take a longer-term view of the lessons for the future offered here.
Even though the overall picture remains largely unchanged since 2004, on closer inspection the report reveals clear pointers to what did work, as well as to what did not. The most pronounced increase in childcare places occurred after the 1998 introduction of the National Childcare Strategy. The fact that this has plateaued since its successor, the Ten-Year Strategy, was launched, is perhaps neither surprising nor proof of failure.
A larger proportion of parents than in 2004 thought local childcare affordable and available. Early education proved particularly popular with parents. This Government deserves credit for bringing England into line at last with most of Europe, by offering free early education to three- and four-year-olds.
Another encouraging development was the substantial increase in employer support for childcare, although it primarily benefited better-off parents. While such support was reported by only 7 per cent of parents in 2004, by 2007 this had risen to 19 per cent.
It is heartening, too, that the demise of the extended family has been much exaggerated - if the figure of 47 per cent of informal care being provided by grandparents in the course of a year is anything to go by. Informal care was most often used for the youngest children aged between nought and four, and even dual-earner families used equal amounts of formal and informal care in a typical week.
Why should we be surprised to find parents turning to family, friends and neighbours for a helping hand with childcare, given the restricted hours of most formal provision? This sounds like 'real life' to me, and is predictable when considering that parents' working hours can fall any time within the 24-hour day on any day of the year. And this for a minimum period of ten years or so in the case of only one child, let alone two or more.
Childcare to match atypical working hours proved elusive, perhaps not least because it forces childcare practitioners into similar working patterns. The Extended Schools initiative appeared to have made little impact as yet on the availability of childcare during holiday periods over the previous year, but out-of-school clubs were the form of provision most frequently mentioned by parents when asked about their use of childcare during the past week.
Mothers' employment
Even before considering the impact of costs in the current childcare marketplace, we need look no further than the statistics on mothers' employment to identify another potential explanation for the unchanging uptake of formal provision other than early education. One of the Ten-Year Strategy's main policy drivers was the need to promote maternal employment rates. These have remained virtually unchanged over more than ten years. In a worsening economy, they are unlikely to improve soon.
It is also worth noting that the development of more generous parental leave policies has not kept pace with that of childcare and early years provision for under-threes, although surveys done by the National Centre of Social Research and others since 2000 have consistently reported parental preferences for informal care for their youngest children.
We should carefully consider the finding that over a third of parents said that local childcare was not affordable, particularly for low-income families, large families, lone parents and those with younger children. This could be linked to several factors. For instance, though free at the point of delivery, the early education entitlement as yet does not match the 16 hours parents need to work to qualify for the Childcare Element of the Working Tax Credit. Hence a proportion of wrap-around childcare for three- and four-year-olds is needed to plug this gap, before parents can even start claiming. The uptake of the Childcare Element also remained low and at the same level as in 2004.
Information sources
Given the Ten-Year Strategy's emphasis on bringing childcare and early education within reach of poor families, the low uptake among low-income, lone parent and minority ethnic families is disappointing. With child poverty trends worsening, bringing forward the extension of the free early education entitlement to at least 20 hours might go some way to address this issue.
The reasons behind the low use of Government-provided childcare information sources, ChildcareLink and Children's Information Services, needs unpacking further, especially since over a third of parents would like more information about childcare services. Taking into account the emotionally charged nature of childcare choices for young children in particular, the reported reliance on 'word of mouth' is perhaps not all that surprising, though.
Altogether, the 2007 Childcare Survey's findings provide valuable information to inform any future development of the Government's childcare strategy, in the interest of children and their families.
- Eva Lloyd is a co-author of the Childcare and Early Years Survey 2007 but wrote this feature in a personal capacity.
FURTHER INFORMATION
'Childcare and early years survey 2007: Parents' use, views and experiences' is at www.dcsf.gov.uk/research
KEY FINDINGS
- The 2007 survey found that 84 per cent of families had used some form of childcare or early years provision - be it regular or ad hoc - in the past year. Over that period, a greater proportion of families had used informal care (65 per cent) than formal provision (54 per cent).
- When looking at the past week, the study found that 63 per cent of families had used childcare or early years provision. Take-up of formal and informal childcare was very similar (40 per cent and 39 per cent respectively).
- The rise in take-up of early years education and other formal childcare identified in the 2004 survey has not continued. Take-up of childcare services has not increased since then, even in relation to out-of-school provision, where there has been an increase in supply following the introduction of Extended Schools.
- Take-up of formal childcare and early years education varied according to children's age; take-up was highest among three- and four-year-olds (85 per cent), followed by children under three (38 per cent). However, take-up of childcare and early years education remained lower than average among low-income families, lone parents and ethnic minority groups.
- The average childcare cost to parents varied widely between different provider types and regions. Nannies and day nurseries were the most expensive providers, and parents in London and the South East reported the highest hourly costs.
- As it was found in 2004, the cost of childcare was a barrier to take-up for some parents, particularly low-income families and lone parents. Significant minorities also mentioned as barriers an inadequate number of childcare places and insufficient services during school holidays, or outside standard hours (i.e. before 8am or after 6pm) and standard days (i.e. at the weekend).
- Views on the affordability and availability of local childcare have improved slightly between 2004 and 2007. The proportion of parents who thought that childcare affordability in their local area was very good or fairly good rose from 35 per cent to 38 per cent, and the proportion who thought there were the right number of childcare places locally increased from 40 per cent to 44 per cent.
- A lack of information might have hindered take-up of childcare. Over a third of parents would like more information about childcare services. There was a great deal of reliance on 'word of mouth' for childcare information and low use of official information sources, namely Children's Information Services and ChildcareLink.
- There was a high level of parental satisfaction with both the quality of the provider they used, and more generally with childcare and early years services.
