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Chronicle Live

National

Kali Lindsay

Campaigners call for government to invest in childcare and overhaul system to help economy

Amanda Bailey Economy Poverty

A call has been made for the government to make a greater investment in childcare which will in turn help boost the economy.

Director of the North East Child Poverty Commission Amanda Bailey said it was "staggering" that the Chancellor failed to mention childcare in his recent Autumn Statement.

As the government looks to tackle rising levels of economic inactivity, Ms Bailey said the costs and availability of childcare stops families from getting back into work.

She said: "The fact the autumn statement didn't mention childcare or even in the larger policy document when it is actually the single biggest thing preventing people getting back into work - it is staggering.

"For me, childcare should be one of the single biggest investments. It is a piece of infrastructure that is as important as the rail network and roads."

Ms Bailey said the North East has the highest child poverty rate anywhere in the country, with almost two in five children growing up poor.

Amanda Bailey, director, North East Child Poverty Commission (Christopher Owens)

She added: "This rises to a staggering 47% of children living in families with an under five – a situation which is simply intolerable, and threatens to have serious, long-term consequences both for the North East’s youngest children and our region as a whole."

A report by ThinkTank IPPR released earlier this year highlighted there were seven different schemes on offer to parents in England. The report said one in three parents of pre-school children spend more than a third of their wages on childcare, as costs have outstripped growth since the financial crisis.

Ms Bailey said complex funding schemes, costs and inaccessibility are stopping families from accessing childcare.

She said: "An easy to navigate, genuinely affordable and flexible childcare system should play a central part in reducing child poverty in the North East – helping parents and carers to get into or remain in work, or to increase their hours, as well as providing all young children with the same level of high quality, early years education."

"Instead, it can be complex, expensive, inaccessible and is acting as a major barrier to employment, as it is becoming increasingly impossible for many parents and carers to make work pay, or to juggle working around what is often term-time only provision. Parts of our current system also disadvantage children in the North East, who are least likely, for example, to be able to benefit from the 30 hours a week of funded childcare for 3 and 4-year olds." she said.

Now, the commission is calling for the government to recognise that overhauling the system.

In a recent report the commission called for the government to improve access to affordable childcare/early years education which included funding universal free breakfast clubs and after-school clubs/wraparound care, providing upfront support towards childcare costs in Universal Credit, and extending the 30 hours of funded early years education to all three and four year olds.

Ms Bailey added: "The Government has to recognise that transformational investment in our childcare and early years system would not only massively benefit babies, children and families today; it would provide a huge boost to the economy, and – importantly – would represent vital investment in the future of our country, and yet the issue wasn’t even mentioned by the Chancellor last week."

A Government spokeswoman said: "We understand the pressures many households and childcare providers are under due to the challenges of recession and high inflation. We have spent more than £20 billion over the past five years to support families with the cost of childcare and the number of places available in England has remained stable since 2015, with thousands of parents benefitting from this support.

"We’re investing millions in better training for staff working with pre-school children and have set out plans to help providers in England run their businesses more flexibly."