Provision and use of preschool childcare in Britain

Simon, Antonia and Owen, Charlie (2018). Provision and use of preschool childcare in Britain. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852068

This study will combine information about the users (parents) and the providers of preschool childcare, both formal and informal. It will do this through a secondary analysis of a number of large-scale, quantitative datasets, including the Labour Force Survey, the Family Resources Survey, the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey, and the Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents. The aim of this research is to inform understandings of the future shape of childcare provision and usage in Britain.

The specific objectives are to:
- examine childcare usage in the Britain, including combinations of formal and informal care, and how the use of care is related to the demographic characteristics of families
- examine who provides informal childcare, their demographic characteristics and the extent to which they have other caring responsibilities
- examine the formal childcare workforce - such as nursery nurses, playgroup workers and childminders - including their demographic characteristics, their qualifications and their work patterns.

Collaboration with the NDNA and the Family and Childcare Trust will ensure the research is of value to non-academics.

Data description (abstract)

This research aimed to understand childcare provision and usage in Britain using a number of large-scale national datasets, including the Family Resources Survey (FRS), the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and The Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents (CEYSP). Analysis focused on the most recent data but also compared patterns between 2005 and 2014.
Key Findings: (1) The childcare workforce has shrunk over time: around five per cent in Britain since 2005 (from 329k in 2005-07 to 313k in 2012-14: LFS). This raises concerns about who will do childcare work in the future. (2) The results show a highly gendered (98% female), low valued workforce in which qualifications are modestly rising (12% increase over time in NVQ level 3) but persistently low paid (on average £6.60 per hour compared with £13.10 per hour for other occupations). (3) More people describe themselves as childminders in the LFS than are registered with Ofsted, suggesting a possible growth in illegal childminding. (4) Despite previous concerns of high workforce turnover, the mean service length is now over six years and increasing. Employment in this sector may offer nonfinancial benefits such as satisfying work and the opportunity for part-time employment that can be combined with family life which may explain long periods of service among workers, given the low pay.
(5) Childcare usage is high (68%), with around half of families using more than one type and reliance on informal care is still high (31% of all usage is grandparents). This suggests current childcare does not cover what parents need, especially to work full-time, as parents are using more than one form of childcare to provide cover for what they need. Furthermore, childcare use is not evenly distributed: formal childcare is used more by employed, higher income families whereas informal care is used more by mothers who are not employed and by younger mothers. Couples where both partners were in employment were most likely to use childcare.

The project collaborated with the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), a providers’ body, and the Family and Childcare Trust, a charity campaigning for childcare for parents. The Research Advisory Group included representatives from the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education, the Preschool Learning Alliance and Grandparents Plus.

Data creators: