Researchers looked at the experience of 120 families and 143 children aged between six months and three years, half of whom were allocated to an Early Excellence Centre - the Mapledene Early Years Centre in the London borough of Hackney, which offered them a full- or part-time place with an option to change depending on the circumstances. The other half answered questionnaires and in-depth interviews. By the end of an 18-month period in summer 2002, the researchers found that almost a quarter (23 per cent) more women using the centre were in paid work compared with those mothers whose children had not been allocated a place.
However, the report, published in the British Medical Journal, said, 'Despite this effect of increased employment, there was no evidence of a corresponding increase in household income. Indeed, women entering paid employment often experienced a reduction in their entitlement to benefits such as housing benefit or Working Families Tax Credit when they increased their hours of paid work.'
The report also found that although many mothers would have liked to return to work after having a child, some said the pay would not compensate for the benefits they would lose. One mother said, 'I wanted to go back into work. It would have been 27 hours and I would have 107.10, but I would have got 100 taken off my family credit. I still would have had to pay 50 for rent and 15 council tax. Then there's childcare, which is 45 a month, and then I would be left with nothing. Even if you work full-time you're still going to be short of some money.'
Report co-author Tami Toroyan, research fellow in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Public Health Intervention Research Unit, said, 'This trial offers some support for Government initiatives which have been developed in the belief that daycare provision can increase a mother's take-up of employment opportunities. But our findings also indicate that paid employment does not provide an instant ticket out of poverty by increasing household income.'
Jan Turner, head of the Mapledene Early Years Centre, said she was not surprised by the findings. 'But you need to take a long-term viewpoint - families would see their income increase over time because childcare gave them the chance to access higher education or work. It just takes time to work through,' she said.
'Some parents seemed to be working for not much of an increase in income, but what they got out of it in terms of getting back on the career ladder, gaining confidence, coping and taking the next steps in their careers, has been valuable to them.'
A spokeswoman for the Deaprtment for Education and Skills said, 'We are committed to improving access to good quality and affordable childcare, early learning and family support to ensure all children get a sure start in life. As well as helping provide more good quality childcare, we are helping many families pay for childcare.'
She said that 'around 1m a day' was spent through the childcare element of Working Tax Credit, which provides up to 70 per cent of childcare costs, and that 264,000 families were benefiting from this.
The research was a collaborative project between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of London's Institute of Education, the City and Hackney Primary Care Trust and the University of East Anglia.
'Without Government initiatives such as Sure Start or Early Excellence Centres, there's no way we could offer what we do at Mapledene at present.'
New family-friendly policies mean parents will have more choice and more support than ever before to balance their childcare and work,! the spokeswoman said.
