Writing for the think tank Centre Forum, MP Elizabeth Truss argued that an average a family spends more than a quarter of their income on childcare, higher than any other member country of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), except Switzerland.
This is despite the fact that the government spends more than £7bn on pre-school support, higher than Germany, France or the Netherlands, while last year Ofsted spent £21.1m inspecting childminders.
Truss has been calling for the UK to adopt a model of regulation and inspection similar to that used in the Netherlands to reduce the cost of childcare and allow nurseries to apply for academy status.
Under the Dutch model, childminder agencies train and monitor childminders and act as intermediaries between parents providers and parents.
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