How many children aged under three should childminders and nursery staff be allowed to look after at the same time?
A relaxation in the number of pre-school children that nurseries and registered childminders can oversee has been announced in order to professionalise the pre-school workforce and cut the cost of childcare in England.
1980s
1986: Daycare Trust founded
1989: We deliver the first national information service offering parents information about childcare services and vacancies - Childcare Links.
1990s
1990: Childcare Umbrella - of which Daycare Trust was a key member - successfully lobbied for workplace nurseries to be exempt from tax.
1994: We succeeded in introducing a childcare disregard to Family Credit to help support lone parents with their childcare needs.
1998: National Childcare Strategy introduced
1998: National Childcare Week launched, recognising and celebrating childcare in Great Britain.
1999: Family Credit became Working Families Tax Credit, and Daycare Trust mapped out requirements for the new tax credit in Sharing the costs of childcare: a new deal for parents on low income (1998)/Paying for childcare: childcare subsidies, working families tax credit and other ways to make childcare more affordable (1998).
2000s
2001: Daycare Trust published its first childcare costs survey, followed a year later by the addition of a holiday childcare costs survey; both are now relied upon by the sector to inform policy debate.
2001: Childcare for all campaign
2001-2: Facing the future: children's centres policy paper
2004: Daycare Trust launched the 10-year Childcare Strategy
2004: Childcare Approval Scheme introduced for nannies, following issues raised by Daycare Trust's No more nine to five: childcare in a changing world (2000).
2005: NHS childcare allowance introduced.
2005: Tax exemptions for employer-supported childcare (vouchers and directly-contracted childcare) were introduced.
2006: Childcare Act 2006 passed - the first ever piece of legislation on childcare. It requires local authorities to carry out a Childcare Sufficiency Assessment and develop action plans to meet the childcare needs of working families in their area.
2006: We published RAMPS: a framework for listening to children
2007-10: Daycare Trust's Listening to families research series highlighted the specific needs of BME families, lone parents and families with disabled children
2009: DCSF announced a £5.5 million pilot scheme in ten local authority areas to test out new and innovative approaches to affordable and accessible holiday provision, in response to the findings and recommendations of our Holiday Childcare Survey.
2010s
2010: Free Early Years Entitlement now available for all three- and four-year olds for 15 hours per week, and is also being rolled out to disadvantaged two-year olds.
This has always been at the heart of Daycare Trust's campaign to expand provision of high quality universal childcare and the achievement of the current provision is one of Daycare Trust's biggest successes. In the future we hope to see it expanded so that all two-, three- and four-year olds receive 20 hours of free early years education per week.
2012: Care to Learn funding for young parents is protected for 2012/2013 after a campaign led by Daycare Trust and the NUS.
The new name for Daycare Trust and the Family and Parenting Institute.
Report reveals childcare is the luxury that families have to afford as figures show that nursery, childminder and after-school club costs are all rising at more than double the rate of inflation.
The two charities merged on 1 January 2013 and the new charity will be launched in April 2013.
A review of Daycare Trust's achievements in 2012
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