Government’s ‘childcare chaos’ leaving families in England facing steep costs

A part-time nursery place for a child under two costs an average of £158 per week, the latest annual survey of the Coram Family and Childcare charity has found. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Childcare places in England have fallen by nearly 40,000 since the Tories came to power in 2010, Labour research has found.

This includes a drop of 1,000 places between March and December last year, at a time when demand was anticipated to rise before new entitlements became available.