Analysis of the Labour Force Survey and the Family Resources Survey by Save the Children suggests the childcare system is preventing 450,000 mothers with children under the age of five in England looking for work or increasing their hours.
It says this means that fewer than one in three mothers with a young child are in full-time work.
The charity estimates that a mother in an 'average family' with young children could be losing between £3,400 or £11,400 a year. Scaled up, this means nationally mothers are potentially losing £1.2 bn over a year.
Save the Children says these lost earnings can have a ‘huge impact’ on children, with evidence showing that the stress and pressure affects children’s quality of life and their ability to learn at the most important time in their lives – their 'critical pre-school years'.
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