The charities want to find out what effect the increasing cost of childcare is having on families, and whether the cost has become too high for it to be worthwhile for poor families to work.
The survey, to be sent out to 70,000 parents across Britain, follows research published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in April which showed that Britain has the most expensive childcare costs in the world, accounting for 28 per cent of average net income for a household with two earners, compared with the OECD average of 13 per cent.
The average cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two is £177 per week in Britain
Anand Shukla, acting chief executive of the Daycare Trust, said, 'Our research shows that childcare costs have risen every year for the last ten years. We know childcare is expensive, but we need to know how much of a barrier it is to parents being able to find or keep a job.
'Daycare Trust frequently hears from parents who tell us they are not working or are only working part-time because they cannot meet these exorbitant childcare costs. We are urging all parents to complete this survey, and support us to campaign for affordable, high-quality childcare for all.'
Meanwhile, Save the Children has ranked the UK 23rd in a league table of 43 countries for the wellbeing of children, behind France, Hungary, Slovenia and Estonia, in its annual State of the World's Mothers report.
The index ranks developed countries according to three main factors - pre-primary enrolment, secondary school enrolment and the under-five mortality rate.
The index highlights the relatively low number of children enrolled in pre-school education in the UK, at 81 per cent compared with 100 per cent in countries including France, Germany and the Netherlands. It puts Sweden in first place, followed by Italy and Japan in joint second place.
Save the Children's chief executive Justin Forsyth said, 'We know that pre-school nursery or playgroup access helps all children, but especially the poorest. It is a national embarrassment that the UK lags so far behind other countries of a similar size and wealth. We can't be complacent about the state of early schooling for children in this country. If we are to catch up with our European neighbours we have to take urgent steps to remedy this. In particular, the Government has to reverse the cuts to support for childcare it is imposing on the poorest families.'
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said, 'Tackling disadvantage and raising the life chances of the poorest children is critical to narrowing the gap and giving every child a fair start in life. We've increased the free entitlement to 15 hours per week of early years provision for all threeand four-year-olds from last September - and are now extending it to all poor two-year-olds. We are also retaining Sure Start as a universal service for all, but want it much better targeted at the poorest families which need the most help.'
- The childcare costs survey can be accessed at www.savethechildren.org.uk/childcare.