A study by the thinktank Nesta, seen by the Guardian, shows how hard it is for families in different parts of England to afford to pay for someone to look after their children while they work. Meanwhile, two other studies – one by the children’s charity Coram and one by the Labour party – show there are insufficient places in half of the country’s local authorities, with demand now more than double the country’s supply.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, will say in a speech on Thursday: “The childcare model the Conservatives have built fails everyone, denying parents the ability to work the jobs they’d like, to give their children the opportunities they’d like, and is not of the quality that staff want to provide.
UK childcare costs have been rising for years and are now double the OECD average, with a two-earner family now paying a third of their post-tax income on securing a place for their child. For a single-parent family on the minimum wage, that figure is over two-thirds.
Read more at The Guardian
