Only two per cent of people who currently work in early years are male. Do you think there should be more effort to increase the numbers of men working in childcare and early years?
Daycare Trust in collaboration with the Social Market Foundation and the Institute of Fiscal Studies were commissioned by the Nuffield Foundation to explore and establish what constitutes good quality early years education for children in England and Wales, in relation to what parents can afford to pay.
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The final report suggesting alternative models for high quality universal education by 2020, and recommendations for how this can be funded, is accompanied by five working papers:
For many parents, the requirement to pay up-front childcare costs including fees in advance, deposits, retainers and administration fees to secure a place with a childcare provider creates a significant barrier to starting or returning to work.
The Childcare Advance project, funded by Friends Provident Foundation, investigates the help currently available to families when faced with up-front childcare costs, the extent to which parents experience difficulty meeting these costs and models potential options for a sustainable scheme offering financial help to parents with these costs.
The research findings support the need for a national scheme offering financial help to parents with up-front childcare costs and suggest that a low cost loan delivered by not-for-profit lenders is the best way of supporting parents, both for long term sustainability of the scheme and for offering a better fit with financial help with ongoing childcare costs available to parents.
A second stage of this project is recommended during which different delivery models can be trialled and evaluated. At least one pilot should be an employer delivered loan scheme and another delivered as a partnership of a community organisation or Family Information Service and a Credit Union or Community Development Finance Initiative. Daycare Trust are currently seeking opportunities to pursue this second stage.
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ISBN: 978 1 906245 50 2
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ISBN: 978 0 9558819 9 2
Childcare nation?: Progress on childcare strategy and priorities for the future
ISBN: 1 871088 96 8
This comprehensive progress report on the Government's childcare strategy has been compiled by Daycare Trust and the National Centre for Social Research. As well as charting progress to date on delivering the strategy, the report spells out what still needs to be done to ensure access to childcare for all who need it.
Childcare Nation? has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation and brings together a review of existing research and of the range of statistics relevant to the Government's childcare strategy. The literature review and desk research have been supplemented by new secondary analysis of two key data sources: the Parents' Childcare Survey series and the Childcare Providers Survey series. The report addresses six key areas: Outcomes for children; Quality and the childcare workforce; The state of childcare provision; Parents' work patterns; Changes in patterns of childcare use and Childcare costs.
A summary of the comprehensive progress report on the Government's childcare strategy is available.
The full report is available to purchase. Please visit our online shop to purchase this title.
'Listening to black and minority ethnic parents about childcare' is one in a series of papers presenting the findings from the Daycare Trust Listening to families project. This report explores the findings from eight focus groups conducted with parents from different black and minority ethnic groups, asking them about their use of, views on, and needs for childcare.
'Listening to parents of disabled children' about childcare is one in a series of papers presenting the findings from the Daycare Trust Listening to families project. This report explores the findings from focus groups conducted with parents of children with disabilities and special educational needs around London, asking them about their use of, views on, and needs for childcare
'Listening to lone parents about childcare' presents the findings from a series of focus groups conducted by Daycare Trust as part of the Listening to families project.
'Listening to children about childcare' presents the findings from a series of interviews and focus groups with children between the ages of 6 and 12 (up to age 18 for those with disabilities) about what they think about childcare. In the focus groups we explored with children their own experiences of childcare, their likes and dislikes, as well as their views on childcare more generally and what it means for children today.
The full reports in the Listening to Families series are available to purchase. Please visit our online shop for details.
The Listening to Families research series is funded the the Department for Children, Schools and Families
The London Development Agency commissioned Daycare Trust to undertake two pieces of research exploring the childcare needs of children with disabilities and special educational needs:
Listening to providers about childcare for children with disabilities and special educational needs
Listening to parents of children with disabilities and special educational needs
Conducted between 2005 and 2008 the Ensuring Equality project, funded by the Esmée Fairburn Foundation, has aimed to explore the use of childcare services among black and minority ethnic (BME) families, raise awareness of the specific needs of different ethnic minority families, and make the voices of these families heard. Daycare Trust has produced five reports as part of this project:
This paper provides an overview of the work and findings of the whole Ensuring Equality project and highlights some of the challenges facing BME communities in accessing formal childcare services, and some of the approaches that are being taken to address these challenges.
This report examines what is being done at a local level to monitor ethnicity within childcare settings and how this data is being used to increase the take-up of childcare by BME families.
This report, part of the Ensuring Equality Project, presents findings from a series of focus groups with childcare workers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. The aim of the research was to explore with childcare workers their views on: engaging black and minority ethnic communities with childcare services; and recruiting and retaining childcare workers from black and minority ethnic communities, and the extent to which this addresses the question of how to increase uptake of childcare among different ethnic groups. The report provides some interesting insights into how childcare workers address different ethnic and cultural needs in childcare settings and their views on the importance of having an ethnically diverse childcare workforce.
Reports on parents' comments gathered at eight focus groups carried out across England in 2006-07.
Looks at the views and experiences of black and minority ethnic families and brought together qualitative and quantitative research.
The full reports in the Ensuring Equality series are available to purchase. Please visit our online shop for details.
This project, funded by The Nuffield Foundation, looked at the funding available for childcare costs for adult learners, studying on a course of further education.
Access to further education (FE) and training is crucial if parents are to gain stable and well-paid employment. It is also vital for reducing child poverty. As the Leitch report states: “ensuring everyone has the opportunity to improve their skills is the best way to improve social mobility in the UK”. Access to affordable childcare is essential if parents are to be able to undertake FE and training, and childcare costs can be 'a formidable barrier'.
During the 2006-07 academic year, Daycare Trust’s Information Service received a number of calls reporting a shortage of childcare services and funding for FE learners. This has continued at the start of the 2007/08 autumn term. We are concerned that learners and potential learners are not gaining access to the childcare they need. This will have a negative impact on their ability to study and therefore obtain sustainable employment. If the Government is serious about enabling people to improve their skills, this ambition must be matched with childcare support and funding.
As the Government strives to get more parents into work and training, our new briefing paper highlights problems with funding support for childcare for adults in further education. Childcare for adult learners in further education examines the main sources of funding help with childcare available to student parents aged 20+ across the UK. In particular, it calls for reforms to the Learner Support Fund, the discretionary grant that is the main source of financial help for English student parents who need childcare.
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We currently have a vacancy for the Chair of the Trustee board.
New guide helps you with your childcare options.
Will you back our campaign to make childcare a priority issue in the new parliament?
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