EXCERPTS
Three small words could end the chaos, confusion, unequal provision and financial distress of millions of voters engaged in the childcare battle. Those three words are free universal childcare; an offer for all children from one to 14. This month, the coalition partially addressed the demand side - upping the amount given to parents to £2,000 per child for childcare costs. A benefit that helps 900,000 families on very low incomes but also goes to a couple with a joint income of up to £300,000. It's a proposal that adds to the distortions and inequities in the childcare market .
Instead, as the charity 4Children has long argued, the government should invest in supply. What that requires is long term sustainable investment in childminders and nurseries, many of which are on the cliff edge of closure because the current free offer to two and three year olds barely covers costs; upgrading selection, training and qualifications of staff; improving childcare salaries and learning from successful nursery chains that do well because they work to a larger scale.
All revolutions take longer than expected and childcare is no exception. In 1997, Gordon Brown, the then Labour chancellor went where no politician had gone before. He rightly declared that childcare was central to the nation's economy. Sixteen years later, these goals continue to be vital. They include child development and helping children to reach their full potential, to enjoy childhood and to socialise well.
High quality accessible childcare also allows families to work to pay the bills, ease financial worries, live a little and plan ahead. It liberates female talent since too many women are forced to take part-time jobs that drastically underuse their training and capabilities because that is the working day that fits around a lack of childcare. In addition, the provision of good childcare puts a proper value on care and generates jobs, improves skills and puts money back into an economy that badly needs real growth, not growth rooted in debt and a housing bubble.
The cost of childcare absorbs, on average, 27% of disposable family income. (£9,850 a year for a two year old in full time nursery; the average mortgage is £7,207). Nearly 60% of families earning £45,000 plus make use of formal childcare compared to only a third of families on £10,000 or less. The Childcare Act 2006 placed a statutory duty on local authorities to provide sufficient childcare "as far as is practicable". A report by the Family and Childcare Trust this month revealed that millions of children are denied care because more than half of local authorities in England and Wales are not meeting that legal obligation to ensure sufficient services. The law is not being enforced and as there is no incentive to adherence, children, parents and the economy pay the price.
Free universal childcare is under consideration by Labour. It would put an extra 27% of income in a family's pocket; it would encourage more families to consider its use to the benefit of children; it would normalise high standards and even out provision. It would create jobs in areas where they are desperately needed; it would enable two million women to return to work. A change that, according to the think tank the Resolution Foundation, would pay for itself by improved taxes and reduced benefits.
Free universal childcare scares many. It will have a high cost in a time of austerity however the return will more than justify the outlay. What it requires is that government takes the longer view rather than a horizon that stretches only to the next election. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as self-evident." It's that third step that is always the most difficult.
- reprinted from the Guardian