Good morning. If you want to make a toddler’s parents furious – and they’re always on a pretty short fuse, let’s be honest – ask them how much of their salary they’re spending on childcare. The cost and quality of provision is one of the most persistent questions of our time: it matters for working parents trying to make ends meet, but it is also important for society generally because a child’s early years have an impact on them for the rest of their lives.
While the government has recently increased the provision of free hours for working parents, there are huge concerns that, because those places are not fully funded, the move could result in a shortage of places and a spike in fees for the hours people have to pay for themselves.
