Not enough support on childcare post-lockdown

The Early Years Alliance has reported that half of parents feel that the government hasn’t given enough support on childcare post-lockdown.

A new survey, of just over 2,000 parents of children aged under five in England, found that 49 per cent of respondents said that the government hasn’t done enough to support parents to access the childcare they need during the pandemic, while 34 per cent say that difficulties accessing childcare since the easing of lockdown has had a negative impact on their work life, rising to nearly half (48 per cent) of parents living in the most deprived local authority areas.

The Early Years Alliance also found that 27 per cent said that difficulties accessing childcare since the easing of lockdown has had a negative impact on their mental health, rising to 36 per cent of parents living in the most deprived local authorities areas. One in ten have not been able to access formal childcare at all since the easing of lockdown despite wanting to do so.

The Early Years Alliance is calling on the government to provide an emergency rescue package for the childcare sector in England – alongside a longer-term sustained increase in general funding levels – at the upcoming Spending Review to ensure that early years providers are able to deliver high-quality, affordable and accessible care and education to their families both now and in the long-term.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: “It is clear that much more needs to be done to ensure that the parents of young children are able to access the childcare they need. For this to happen, the government simply must provide greater financial support to the early years sector so that nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are able to keep their doors opens and provide the care and education that families rely on.

“The Prime Minister recently talked about ‘the spiralling economic costs of parents and carers unable to work without the school or wraparound childcare they depend on’, but with around two million families with children under five using formal childcare, the government simply cannot afford to ignore the worsening crisis that the early years sector is facing any longer.

“It’s clear from our survey that many parents, and particularly those living in more disadvantaged areas, are already feeling the strain of reduced access to childcare – both in terms of work pressures and the impact on their mental health. With a quarter of providers fearing closure by next year, this situation is only going to get worse unless the government takes urgent action.

“As such, we urge the Chancellor to use the upcoming Spending Review as an opportunity to commit to the investment that the early years needs to survive the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. The alternative is a sector that may never recover from the impact of the pandemic, and hundreds of thousands of parents left without the support they need at the time they need it most.”