Who uses childcare in the UK and how much does it cost? 73

Recent pressures, including the cost of living crisis, shortage of childcare workers, and the closure of childcare settings due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have made securing childcare even more difficult. [...] In contrast, for-profit nurseries have expanded and were Childcare shortages have been exacerbated by Covid-19 the only type of childcare provider to employ more staff closures and the continued high cost of energy, food, and in 2022 than in 2019. [...] However, these types of childcare childcare settings which are held to higher educational are often inaccessible to mothers in a low socioeconomic standards, and are better regulated than for-profit ones position due to cost and inflexibility (Meyers and Jordan which do not explicitly prioritise the needs of vulnerable 2006; Schaffnit and Sear 2017). [...] Part of the expansion includes the extension To better plan for the expansion of government-funded of “free childcare hours”. [...] The cost of childcare may be a government’s commitment to increasing funding for deterrent, since more than half of lower income families childcare will be a relief to many families, we recommend who pay for childcare spend over 20% of their income on higher reimbursement rates to childcare providers.