CYP Now - Childcare strategy: Campaigners say more needs to be done to make care affordable

Much more needs to be done to make childcare affordable for many families, say campaigners responding to the Government's 10-year strategy for childcare.

The document, which promises longer paid maternity leave, extended free nursery places and rises in childcare tax credits, has been widely welcomed (see Analysis, p11).

But experts say the plan will only go some of the way to easing the cost burden on parents, one of the biggest barriers to accessing childcare.

Vidhya Alakeson, a research fellow at the Social Market Foundation, said: "You still have parents bearing a significant proportion of childcare costs. The strategy says that for a family on 34,000 this will reduce from 85 to 75 per cent. That is still a huge contribution compared to the EU average of 30 per cent."

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