Cost of Childcare Continues To Rise
A new survey released this week by the Daycare trust has found that the childcare costs for England, Wales and Scotland are showing no sign of abating any time soon.? The current costs for England total ?4,756 for an entire year of nursery, based on a single child under two years old spending 25 hours a week at nursery although Welsh and Scottish parents paid less – ?4,056 and ?4,368 respectively.
The trust is using this information to call for politicians to take childcare investment as a serious election issue, and have asked all major parties to make a commitment regarding the future investment and spiralling costs of childcare in the United Kingdom.
Unsurprisingly, further investigation into the results of the survey reveals London and South East of the country to be where the highest childcare costs are with average weekly prices reaching well over ?100. Meanwhile in the north, childcare costs were greatly reduced, costing a maximum of around ?76. The difference in regions was far less significant in Scotland and Wales.
Interestingly the cost of enrolling children in various after school clubs has actually fallen in Wales and Scotland but has risen by over 10 per cent in England. Such clubs offer interesting activities for children while allowing parents more time to work before having to pick up the kids from school, often enabling them to save even more time by missing out on the school rush.
Chief Executive of the Daycare Trust, Allison Garnham said:
?Over the last year, families across the UK have been hit hard by the impact of the recession, with parents facing the strain of losing jobs, having their hours cut back or facing pay cuts – all of which is compounded further by childcare costs shooting up.
We know that whatever the outcome of the election, there are tough spending choices to be made. However, we hope that all parties will recognise what a central issue childcare is for parents, and take up our policy recommendations as they build their manifestos.”