Towards a childcare guarantee

Article

Childcare and early education in England isn’t working – for children, parents, or providers.

Childcare costs hold parents – and particularly mothers – back from getting into or getting on in employment, and heap significant pressures on families navigating the challenges of parenthood. For children, access to high quality early years education can play a role in narrowing inequalities between disadvantaged children and their peers.

Despite these high stakes, England has no coherent early years’ infrastructure: there are currently seven different schemes on offer to parents in England

It’s time for a childcare guarantee to lower barriers for parents getting back into or getting on in work, to reduce costs for families with children, and to ensure every child has access to high quality early years education.

Related items

  1. London, a busy street outside the houses of parliament, with blurred people walking in front of the grand building

    Facing the future: Progressives in a changing world

    Progressive parties need a new set of defining and guiding ideas to challenge the populist radical right.

  2. Singapore on the Clyde?

    Sir Tom Hunter is not happy.Scotland, he laments, is in “managed decline”. The UK and Scottish governments are “punishing the entrepreneurial community with more tax” and, inevitably, “no country has ever taxed its way to growth”. Change…

  3. Fixing the foundations: The case for investing in children's health

    For decades, governments of all stripes have promised to give children a better, healthier start to life. But despite this – and some notable policy successes – the UK continues to fall short on childhood health outcomes.