Charities call for more child care across Scotland

Date: 2nd March 2012
Category: Family Environment and Alternative Care

Parents in Scotland face some of the highest childcare costs in the UK with only one in five local authorities reporting they can afford to subsidise early years care.

Some parents are facing bills of nearly £12,000 a year, according to children's charities, with some councils charging twice as much as others.

A report by the Daycare Trust and Children in Scotland found nursery prices as high as southern England in some areas, with 25 hours of care over 50 weeks at the most expensive nursery costing £11,688.

The charities said out-of-school childcare in the most expensive local authority is 94 per cent more expensive than the cheapest council.

At £49 for 15 hours the average price of after-school-care in Scotland is also higher than in England and Wales.

The report also found only a fifth of local authorities have enough childcare to meet local demand, and just one in ten have enough childcare for parents who work outside normal office hours or who live in rural areas.

Anand Shukla, chief executive of Daycare Trust, said: "We are calling on the Scottish Government to take the lead in implementing the Early Years Framework by legislating to provide a childcare place for every child. We also call on the UK government to reverse its self-defeating childcare tax credit cut."

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