A third of parents with young children in England say they are struggling to afford childcare, the highest number in almost a decade, according to a government survey.
One in three of those with children aged four or younger who responded to the survey carried out by Ipsos on behalf of the Department for Education said they struggled to meet childcare costs in 2022.
This marks the highest proportion of parents who said they found it “difficult or very difficult” to afford childcare since 2014. Just 22% of families said the same in 2018, the last comparable pre-pandemic year for which data is available.
The study also showed an increase in parents saying they had difficulties finding a suitable childcare place. While 27% of families with children aged four and under said there were not enough places in 2018, that figure had risen to 34% in 2022.
The data also shows fewer older children attending childcare. The proportion of 5-to 11-year-olds in either paid-for or informal childcare (usually meaning that they are being looked after by a grandparent or other family member) fell from 68% in 2018 to 59% last year. Overall, the proportion of under-14s in childcare dropped from 65% in 2018 to 58% last year.
Close to two-thirds of the parents surveyed who were not using childcare in the past year said this was out of choice.
But families with children aged four and under were more likely to say they could not find a place or could not afford to do so: almost one in five parents of under-fives said it was down to childcare being unaffordable, compared with 8% among parents with children aged five to 14.
There has also been a rise in parents saying they have struggled to find the right care for their child, with 25% of those surveyed in 2022 reporting problems finding flexible childcare to meet their needs compared with 22% of the respondents in 2018.
Megan Jarvie, the head of Coram Family and Childcare, said that the government’s childcare expansion, due to start in April 2024, was “welcomed by parents struggling with high bills, but unless there is also action to support childcare providers, these plans will not live up to parents’ expectations”.
She added: “High-quality childcare can help boost children’s outcomes and narrow the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers which opens up before they even start school. But a third of local areas do not have enough childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds, the very children who stand to benefit the most.”
A government spokesperson said: “These findings demonstrate how important our biggest ever investment into childcare is. It will save a working parent using 30 hours of childcare up to an average of £6,500 per year.
“We have raised the amount that parents on universal credit can claim back monthly for their childcare, and we’re investing an additional £204m this year to increase the rates we pay providers for places in just two months’ time. We separately have set out our plan for working parents of older children to be able to access wraparound childcare.
“We will continue to support fantastic workforce so that they can deliver on our promise of affordable, flexible childcare for working parents.”
The 2022 survey reports the findings of interviews conducted between April 2022 and February 2023, with a nationally representative sample of 6,017 parents with children aged 0 to 14 in England.