Childcare 'easy to pay for'

This is just one of the findings of the Childcare and Early Years Surveyof Parents 2008, carried out by the National Centre for Social Researchon behalf of the DCSF. Just under 7,100 parents were selected randomlyfrom Child Benefit records.

Here are some of the findings:
Children in childcare
- Any childcare: 64% (68% in the North West; 55% in London)
- Formal care: 44% (with little regional variation)
- Informal care: 34% (42% in the North West; 23% in London)
- Parents only: 0-2s: 42%; 3-4s: 10%.
Median hours of childcare used
- Any childcare: 0-2s: 20 hours; 3-4s: 23.5
- Formal childcare: 0-2s: 17.5; 3-4s: 16.4
- Informal childcare: 0-2s: 10.5; 3-4s: 9
- In day nursery: 21 hours
Quality and finance
- Quality of childcare: 19% said 'very good'; 41% 'fairly good'; 9%
fairly poor; 5% 'very poor'
- Affordability: 35% said 'very' or 'fairly good'; 37% 'fairly' or 'very
poor'
- Financial help: local authority: 60%; employers: 28%
- Child tax credit: 68%
- Childcare element of working tax credit: 14% (may be some
under-reporting)
- Median weekly payment for childcare: day nursery 80; pre-school
10; childminder 49; nanny or au pair 102;
grandparent 23.
Free entitlement
- Children receiving free hours: three-year-olds: 78%; four-year-olds:
91%
- Taken over five days: 53%; four days: 11%; three days: 18% per week
- Hours: 82% of children received the same number of free hours each
day.
Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents 2008, is at:
www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-RR136.pdf