CYP Now - Childcare: Private sector can't meet care needs

The Welsh Assembly cannot rely on private providers to plug huge gaps in childcare provision, according to the Bevan Foundation think-tank, which has launched a new report highlighting a dire shortage of places across the country.

There is just one childcare place for every seven children under eight, reveals the Childcare Revolution in Wales report.

It follows the final report by the Welsh Assembly's childcare working group, which will feed into a national plan for childcare to be published later this year and which contains more than 70 recommendations on childcare policy, including a goal of children's centres in every community.

But Victoria Winckler, director of the Bevan Foundation, said it did not address the sheer scale of the childcare shortage.

"There is a feeling that the problem is mainly a rural issue but we know that it is also a problem in the South Wales valleys," she said.

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