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Affordability: College care underfunded

The funding allocated to provide childcare for student parents in further education is not enough for colleges to support them, a Daycare Trust report has found.

Childcare for adult learners in higher education, produced by theDaycare Trust and the Nuffield Foundation, examines the childcaresupport and funding offered to students aged over 20 in the UK. TheTrust surveyed colleges in Nottinghamshire and London, interviewed staffand monitored calls to their information line.

Joint chief executive of the Daycare Trust, Emma Knights, said, 'Themajority of colleges reported that there is more need than they havefunding for. A lot of colleges subsidise adult learners' childcare withother funding, but this eats into students' other needs, like travel andaccommodation.'

Concerns are raised about Learner Support Funds (LSF), which hasdistributed 32.7m for childcare support in 2007/08.

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