The Daycare Trust made the call following publication of its report, Meeting the child poverty challenge: Why universal childcare is key to ending child poverty. The report, by Professor Hilary Land of Bristol University, identified structural flaws in the Government's current programme of childcare provision and argued that unless these issues are resolved its National Childcare Strategy will not succeed in its commitment to ending child poverty.
Stephen Burke, Daycare Trust director, said the charity was calling for an expansion of public funding for childcare because current initiatives are not reaching the children and families who needed help most. 'Childcare for all is the only way we will reach poorer children and this will benefit all children,' he said.
'The Government, through its review of childcare, has an unprecedented opportunity to set the long-term agenda for childcare for all those who want and need it by the year 2010. This is crucial to ending child poverty.'
Professor Land added, 'If the most disadvantaged areas alone are targeted for integrated childcare, then only a minority of children living in poverty will be reached. Can we afford not to make the long-term investment in universal services?'
The National Day Nurseries Association welcomed the report's insight into the lack of access to childcare, but criticised the Daycare Trust's vision of 'an integrated early years service' because it appeared to exclude day nurseries and other care providers. NDNA chief executive Rosemary Murphy said, 'Day nurseries are socially responsible businesses providing a valuable public service and must be included in any vision of the future of childcare.'
However, Mr Burke said he believed both the private and voluntary sectors had a future role to play in delivering childcare for all. Mrs Murphy also called for increased Government subsidy so that nurseries could pay staff realistic, professional salaries.
According to the report, the UK has one of the highest child poverty rates of all industrialised nations and the highest in the EU. Poverty affects over four million UK children, and three million children live in families where there is no adult in work.
The largest increase in poverty is among unemployed lone-parent families, but for those families where parents or carers do work, longer working hours bring their own problems. The report said, 'In this context, the availability and cost of childcare is even more crucial in determining the level of their disposable income.'
The report costs 10 (inc p&p) from the Daycare Trust, 21 St George's Road, London SE1 6ES (tel 020 7840 3350).