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.
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This section is full of information to you help you to find and pay for childcare and support your child's early learning. To find information about local childcare, contact your local Family Information Service (FIS) by using this 'Find your FIS' function.
Read our quick guide to finding childcare, including where to get help locally, how to find high quality childcare and tips for choosing the right childcare for your family.
Find out more about childcare for young and school age children and children with disabilities, paying for childcare and support if you look after a friend or relative's child or want to start a career in childcare.
Get your copy of Daycare Trust factsheets and booklets on a range of childcare issues and childwise, our parent newsletter.
Find out more about getting involved at your child's childcare setting or how to have your say about childcare issues.
The section below provides you with childcare news and information* that may be of interest to you as a parent.
childwise Spring 2013 now available!
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Online survey for working parents
Are you a working parent with children aged 0- 12? You are invited to take part in an online survey conducted by the University of Manchester. We are studying how working mothers and fathers organize child-care, an increasingly pressing issue in a 24-hour economy where more and more parents have to work flexible hours or evenings, nights and weekends. What kind of questions is the survey asking?
Filling in the survey will take about 20-30 minutes. All answers will be anonymous. You can access the survey through our project website www.manchester.ac.uk/families24-7 under the ‘Questionnaire’ tab. The survey will remain open until 20 December 2012. |
'Make it work' campaign for single parents
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'Sandwich caring' surveyMore and more parents are juggling looking after young children with caring for older or disabled loved ones – which is sometimes called 'sandwich caring.' Daycare Trust is supporting a piece of research by Carers UK and Employers for Carers which aims to better understand the extra pressure these multiple caring responsibilities have on families. You can complete the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/sandwich_caring until 28th October and it will only take around 15 minutes. |
Supporting Grandparents who provide childcareRecent research by Daycare Trust shows that 36 per cent of families get help with childcare from grandparents. This amounts to 4 million grandparent carers in the UK providing almost 10 hours of childcare each week. Daycare Trust is undertaking various peices of work to understand the needs of grandparents who provide childcare, and develop services and information to support them. We are working with the Grandparents Association on a two year Department for Education funded project, around supporting grandparents who provide childcare. We are contributing articles for grandparents at www.grandparents-association.org.uk covering topics such as home learning; communicating with your grandchildren's nursery or pre-school; providing quality childcare at home and understanding the early years foundation stage. We have also been holding a series of workshops around supporting and reaching out to grandparents who provide childcare for their grandchildren. The events are open to grandparents, family support workers, FIS and children's centre out-reach workers to share ideas and good practice. Further details of forth-coming workshops will be here soon. Following the first few workshops and focus groups, we have compiled a briefing paper for professionals supporting families, outlining some of the feedback that grandparents and professionals have told us. Download a copy here.
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A guide for disabled parents: Choosing and paying for childcare
Disabled parents often report to us that they struggle to find childcare which works for their family, and that once they find suitable childcare, it is very difficult to find help paying for it. As a result, we have produced this guide to help disabled parents and their children benefit from high-quality childcare. |
New website helps students with children prepare for university lifeIn 2009, the National Union of Students (NUS) conducted the first UK-wide research into the experience of student parents, which highlighted the need for better information and guidance, particularly around student finance. The new website, www.studentparents.org, is a practical response to this, developed by a consortium of organisations, led by education charity BrightsideUNIAID and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Studentparents.org provides a range of online information and tools including;
Visit the website for further information: www.studentparents.org. |
Prepared to share your childcare experiences? Then join our Parent Panel...Often, when childcare issues hit the headlines, or when the media are covering our campaigns they want parents to give their perspective, and case studies to tell their stories. We know there are loads of parents out there with both strong opinions and powerful stories about childcare to share, so what we're looking to do now is bring these people together, train them up as our ‘Parent Panel' and let their voices be heard. |
Become a member of our Parent NetworkIf you are you are parent or carer and are interested to find out more about childcare and want to have your say, then why not join our Parent Network - it is free to join. |
*Some of the information is provided by other organisations. Through providing such information, Daycare Trust is not endorsing or agreeing with the content. Information is purely provided for general interest and promotion of others' work and services.
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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