4.3m families struggling to access childcare, warns charity

Its report found that 82 per cent of parents are unable to access early years support.

This has been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic due to the forced closure of children’s centres and the moving of some services online. Some 27 per cent of parents said services were completely unavailable to them at the height of the health crisis.

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The lack of access also comes amid a major fall in the number of children’s centres over the last decade. Between 2010 and 2020 the number dropped by a third.

Among families unable to access childcare, 78 per cent are worried about the situation’s impact on themselves or their children.

More than four in of ten families struggling to access services are concerned about their child’s emotional development, ability to make friends, loneliness and mental health challenges.

Other issues, cited by around one in three families, focus on their children’s ability to share toys and physical development.

“Family life has been hugely disrupted since the pandemic hit and today’s report shows vital lifeline services which were already stretched, may be ‘out of reach’ for most parents, leaving them to struggle alone,” said Action for Children policy and campaigns director Imran Hussain.

“We know from our own frontline services that helping families as early as possible is more effective in the long-run so investing in high quality centres and hubs in every community should be a core part of the ‘levelling-up’ agenda.”

He has called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to ensure next month’s Spending Review delivers “a minimum service guarantee for parents and young children”.

Latest government attendance figures show that 697,000 children attended an early years setting on 16 September this year, which is around three quarters of the usual daily level.

National Day Nurseries Association chief executive Purnima Tanuku said the figures “are very concerning both for children’s learning and nursery sustainability”.

“These statistics show that early years providers will be facing very challenging situations this term and beyond into the winter months which is why we want to see this underfunding addressed urgently. The government must start investing truly in children’s futures,” she added.