The Parent Trap!

If you managed to see The Tonight Programme last week on ITV ‘The Parent Trap’ you will have seen yet another report on the overwhelming cost of childcare.

You can’t seem to turn on the TV or radio these days without hearing more about the growing issues around childcare and the effect it is having upon families up and down the country.

The Parent Trap report again referred back to the Swedish system where families only spend 6% of their income on childcare compared to 27% in the UK. In Sweden they pay higher taxes in order to subsidise such things as their childcare system, but could that really work here in the UK especially in the current climate of cut backs and austerity?

The government though did this week announce plans to extend the 15 free hours nursery care to 2 year olds in some of Britain’s most deprived areas to ‘increase social mobility for children and adults’. It is definitely a step in the right direction but with the new changes to working tax credits and the hours you need to work to be eligible will it really benefit people?

The report also highlighted that it is not just the parents are suffering but the nurseries and childcare providers are too. Even when a child is entitled to the 15 free hours of funding it doesn’t actually cover the ‘real’ cost to the nursery or setting. It means that nurseries have to include the difference from what they receive in funding to the ‘real’ cost into their overall prices, therefore increasing the cost for people who require more than 15hrs a week or whose children are under 3.

It is so hard to put a price on childcare as what price do you put on leaving your child in the care of someone else? So, this isn’t a debate about whether childcare is right or wrong, or whether parents should stay home, as that just isn’t feasible for some people but more about what can be done to make it more flexible and affordable.

For anyone who did not see the programme this is a link to the report http://www.itv.com/news/2012-05-31/the-parent-trap-uk-pays-some-of-the-highest-childcare-costs-in-the-world/