Contents
Terms of Reference
Summary
Conclusions and Recommendations
Chapter 1: Introduction
Affordability for the state
Affordability for parents
Chapter 2: Background
The use of childcare in England
Childcare policy
Box 1: Government support for childcare
and early education
History of state intervention in childcare
Early education and childcare: competing
aims?
Policy trade-offs
Policy formulation across Government
Public spending on childcare
Figure 1: Spending on the main sources
of childcare support in the UK over time
Figure 2: Current and planned future public
expenditure on childcare and early education
International spending comparisons
Parental spending on childcare
Childcare costs in England
Table 1: Average childcare costs in England
2013-14
International cost comparisons
Competitiveness in the sector
Chapter 3: Child development
Early education and child outcomes
Impact of evidence on policy development
Narrowing the attainment gap
Box 2: The attainment gap
The home learning environment
Quality
The role of staff to child ratios
Free early education entitlement offer
Box 3: Free early education entitlement
Evaluating the free early education entitlement
Lack of evaluation data
Recent evaluation of the current early education
offer
The childcare market and impact on quality
Table 2: Proportion of children benefitting
from early education entitlement by provider type in 2012-13
Quality in the PVI sector
Box 4: Early Years Pupil Premium
Funding of the free early education entitlement
Box 5: Funding free early education in the
PVI sector
Table 3: Funding of free early education
places for three and four year-olds by provider type
Cross-subsidisation of Government funded
places
Poor incentives to improve quality in the
PVI sector
Expanding schools provision to address the
quality gap
Table 4: Settings planning to offer funded
places for two year-olds in the future (school-based providers)
Chapter 4: Parental employment
Child poverty and parental employment
Has state support made childcare more affordable
for parents?
Demand-side subsidies to parents
Box 6: Working Tax Credit
Free early education entitlement and affordability
Improving efficiency in the childcare sector
Innovation and economies of scale
Box 7: Example of innovation provided by
the Department for Education
Has state support for childcare resulted
in more women working?
Maternal employment rates
Figure 3: Percentage of Women in Employment
1971-2013
Figure 4: Percentage of Mothers and Lone
Parents in Employment 1996-2014
Evidence of the impact of demand-side subsidy
on maternal employment rates
Evidence of the impact of free early education
on maternal employment rates
Return on investment
Childcare Supply
Parental preferences in relation to childcare
The local authority sufficiency duty
Flexibility of childcare to support working
parents
Flexibility in the maintained sector
Childcare for parents with atypical working
patterns
Partnership between schools and PVI providers
The role of employers
Employer contribution to childcare costs
Box 8: Leader of Place: an example of local
authority leadership on parental employment
Flexible working
Box 9: A private sector employer's inclusion
agenda
Appendix 1: List of Members and Declarations
of Interest
Appendix 2: List of Witnesses
Appendix 3: Call for evidence
Appendix 4: Correspondence with the Exchequer
Secretary, Priti Patel MP
Appendix 5: Questions for written answer
tabled on behalf of the Committee
Appendix 6: Definitions
Appendix 7: Briefing note on childcare costs
and spending estimates prepared by Dr Gillian Paull, 1 December
2014
Appendix 8: Glossary
Evidence is published online at http://www.parliament.uk/afffordable-childcare and
available for inspection at the Parliamentary Archives (020 7219
3074).
Q in footnotes refers to a question in oral evidence
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