Daycare Trust Annual Review 2010

Daycare Trust Annual Review 2010 For over 20 years, Daycare Trust has worked to put childcare at the top of the political agenda and to help people who need childcare to find it. Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, Deputy Prime Minister Daycare Trust Annual Review 2010 03 About Daycare Trust Daycare Trust is the national childcare charity. We have been working since November 1986 to promote high quality affordable childcare for all. We know how important it is to make the right decision about childcare for your child and we hope that, through our information and services, we can help you to find out more. Our campaigning work continues to focus on childcare affordability, listening to parents and keeping children at the centre. Daycare Trust is a registered charity (No.327279) and a company limited by guarantee (No.02063604), registered in England and Wales. VAT registered (No. 830 9847 06). Daycare Trust is: INFLUENTIAL – in leading the national childcare campaign through high quality research, developing credible policy recommendations through publications and the media, and by working with others. EXPERT – at promoting quality childcare and providing information and support to parents, carers and others involved in the childcare sector to enable them to make Finding suitable and affordable childcare good choices and improve services. is an issue blighting the lives of families REPRESENTATIVE – in ensuring the childcare needs and entitlements of children and around the country, particularly during these parents are voiced and heard. tough economic times. That’s why the work Daycare Trust does to campaign around early years and represent the voice of parents is more essential than ever, and why I’m proud to be a passionate supporter of the organisation’s work. Lisa Aziz, Daycare Trust Ambassador www.daycaretrust.org.uk Daycare Trust 04 Annual Review 2010 Chief Executive’s Welcome 2010 has been a significant year of change with the election of a new coalition government. With Daycare Trust’s 25th anniversary approaching next year, we have been reflecting on the state of childcare in the UK today with a sense of pride and determination. Pride, as a result of the advances in early childhood education and care over the past decade. But determination too, to remedy the gaps in provision that remain in many areas, such as for older children, disabled children, and children living in rural areas. And of course we must ensure that childcare is affordable, flexible and accessible for parents. With budget constraints looming, early years has a vital role to play. When resources Maggie Darling, right, with outgoing Daycare Trust Chair, Rita Stringfellow. are tight, wise investment, rather than cuts by spreadsheet must be the approach – and the evidence is overwhelming that money spent in early years is money saved in later A word from our new Chair of Trustees years. In comparison to other education sectors for example, spending on early years is minuscule – yet the evidence shows that the social and cognitive benefits that can be All parents want their children to have the best start in life. Excellent made in these formative years are substantial. childcare changes lives. Daycare Trust is the voice of parents on childcare issues, and in the current climate this The benefits of childcare reach far beyond children and families. High-quality, affordable voice is more important than ever before. Over the coming year we will continue to and accessible childcare brings with it huge social and economic benefits that impact demonstrate the potential of early childhood education and care to transform all children’s on every one of us. From lifting families out of poverty through removing the barriers to futures. Daycare Trust will focus upon the importance of universal provision based on employment created by a lack of childcare; to improving the life chances of children from the evidence that disadvantaged children perform better in high-quality settings where the more disadvantaged families through early intervention such as Sure Start. there is a social mix. The views of parents we work with through our popular information As I take up my new post as Chair of Trustees, I am struck by both the challenges and service, robust research and grassroots campaigning will continue to be heard. opportunities that the period ahead presents, as Daycare Trust continues to shape the Finally I would like to pay tribute to our previous Chief Executives Alison Garnham and future of early childhood education and care. 2011 will see Daycare Trust celebrate Emma Knights, both of whom left Daycare Trust this year, and our outgoing Chair of twenty-five years as the national childcare campaign. The organisation has lived through Trustees, Rita Stringfellow. Daycare Trust owes a debt of gratitude to them all, not only testing times, but through recessions and economic downturns it has never faltered on for their commitment and dedication to the early years agenda, but for the role they have its founding principles. I look forward to working with trustees, staff and members to played in transforming our organisation over recent years. I wish them every success for develop a vision for childcare for the next 25 years that transforms childcare as positively the future. for children and families as Daycare Trust has done so successfully in its first 25 years. Anand Shukla, Acting Chief Executive Maggie Darling, Chair of Trustees www.daycaretrust.org.uk Daycare Trust Annual Review 2010 05 Daycare Trust is... INFLUENTIAL Research Policy Overview Childcare Costs Surveys Each year Daycare Trust conducts two surveys into the cost and availability of childcare in During the past eighteen months Daycare Great Britain. Data for these reports was gathered from FIS (Family Information Services) Trust has been at the heart of a busy period of in England and Wales and Childcare Information Services in Scotland. policymaking, interrupted only by a three month The Annual Childcare Costs Survey, published in February, found that typical costs for 25 pause for the General Election. hours of care per week ranged from £67, for a nursery place for a child aged 2 and over in the North West of England, to £109 for a nursery place for a child under 2 in London. The survey also found that the cost of childcare had risen at over twice the rate of inflation in the last year. The Holiday Childcare Costs Survey, published in July, found that the The final months of the Labour Government saw them push ahead with, then typical cost of a week’s full-time place ranged from £58.89 per week in Wales to £119.32 postpone, the introduction of the Early Years Single Funding Formula, clarify the in the East of England. Many settings do not provide enough hours of care to meet law on reciprocal childcare arrangements and create the first ever law to eliminate parental work commitments, with our report showing that parents had reported the need child poverty. for wraparound childcare to 46 per cent and 50 per cent of FIS in England and Wales Since June the new Coalition Government has begun a series of major reviews respectively. which will shape the future of childcare and early years services. The Tickell review Keeping Mum: Childcare as a vote winning issue? of the Early Years Foundation Stage will reform the regulatory framework, while Prior to the 2010 general election Daycare Trust, together with Bounty Parenting Club, the Comprehensive Spending Review in October confirmed that the free nursery surveyed over 2,000 mothers about how their voting choices would be affected by entitlement for three and four year olds would continue but that parents would political parties’ policies on childcare. The results of our survey suggested that mothers face significant cuts to their tax credits. With Frank Field MP conducting a review would be strongly influenced by how the three main political parties addressed childcare into poverty, and a major overhaul of the benefits and tax credit systems expected, issues. The three issues most likely to make women less likely to vote for a political party you can be sure that Daycare Trust will continue to campaign for more support for were: parents, and services which reduce poverty and inequality. • a removal or reduction of the 12.5 hours of free childcare for all 3 and 4 year olds (69%) Kate Groucutt, Policy Director • a removal or reduction of tax credits (67%), and • a limit or reduction of childcare vouchers (60%). www.daycaretrust.org.uk Daycare Trust 06 Annual Review 2010 Free for all? Parents’ experiences of the free early education entitlement for three and four year olds Working with Netmums, we undertook an online survey of parents’ experiences of the free entitlement to early education and care for three and four year olds. Key findings included the welcome news that 88% of respondents used some or all of the free entitlement but worryingly, 23% reported being asked to pay for some of the ‘free’ entitlement. Future childcare investments: who cares who pays? Daycare Trust marked last year’s conference with the publication of Quality Costs: paying for Early Childhood and Care, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The report identified elements required for high quality provision of ECEC and established and costed a high quality model. Informal Childcare: choice or chance? In April 2010, Daycare Trust began a two-year piece of research, funded by the Big Lottery Research Programme, entitled Informal Childcare: choice or chance? The purpose of our research is to achieve greater understanding of informal childcare by parents in England and its interplay with formal childcare. The final report will be published in March 2012. In numbers: • 4,748 parents surveyed to inform Daycare Trust policy in the last year • 52 TV and radio interviews carried out by Daycare Trust staff on our Childcare Costs surveys • 468 Daycare Trust press hits in the last year www.daycaretrust.org.uk Daycare Trust Annual Review 2010 07 Political Engagement In the run up to the election, and to tie in with our Bounty research, ‘Keeping Mum: Childcare as a vote winning issue’, we published our Childcare Charter.

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