Nearly all four-year-olds in free childcare scheme

Marie Peacock - 23 June 2009

Could this high figure be because a lot of the  4 year olds are actually in reception class in a school?   If your child is in reception class then, as I understand it,  you are deemed to be taking advantage of 'free nursery education'   but in fact it's really 'mainstream schooling' ..... children  are encouraged to 'go to school' at 4 years old in this country,  even if it's not technically a requirement until they are 5 years old.  In other words the way the system operates most parents in UK feel they HAVE  to send their children to school for reception class or they lose out on their preferred school choice.  Perhaps someone can clarify whether children in reception class at school are included in the above figures?

I worry that 'childcare' is a term which is being increasingly mis-used  - in reality it covers a wide spectrum of situations and perhaps different labels should be used, not just the term 'childcare'.    Quite often 'childcare' is being used two or three mornings a week for play purposes  ( not because the mum or dad really need it because they both work).  They used to be called playgroups so that mum/dad could get on with a job at home or attend a hospital appointment etc

Childcare is a term which these days includes both informal care by relatives and friends  (therefore no money changes hands) and formal care (a commercial transaction)  - yet these two scenarios are surely very different.  

Furthermore what I don't understand is that if you use paid childcare you are supported by taxpayers  to meet the costs (and it's increasingly unaffordable for taxpayers)   - yet if you provide your own care as a loving mum/dad,   then you don't receive anything at all in recognition of the loss of income this entails despite the fact that it's more cost effective for the govt and arguably better for the child in many cases to be at home   (not all children are ready for childcare aged 3 years old and not all children benefit from it - indeed many children get very anxious at such a young age ).     

I fail to see why third party childcare provided in a 'formal setting'  is presented consistently  as the answer to everything.  It would be good if parents were given more direct support as a family and if there was more family friendly taxation so that the earner got to keep more of the family income in recognition of the costs of raising children.  We should have income splitting or transferable tax allowances.  If couples weren't under such pressure to both work to make ends meet then I think there would be fewer people 'choosing' to use paid childcare.  It's not a free  'choice' really - it is more about the system almost coercing people into thinking it's the right way to raise children and lead their lives. Indeed I worry that it's becoming more about the gender equality agenda rather than childhood wellbeing.  \(I don't wish to appear negative - I realise that there's a lot of good in it,  but we should be careful about the way we talk about childcare as if it's the 'norm' - for many children and their parents it is not necessarily the right way forward ).