Parents’ views and experiences of childcare

This research was commissioned to inform the work of the recently established joint Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions commission on childcare4, which was tasked with looking at how to reduce the costs of childcare for working families and the burdens on childcare providers. The commission has three key themes:

• Considering ways to encourage the provision of wrap-around and holiday childcare for children of school age;
• identifying any regulation that burdens childcare providers unnecessarily because it is not needed for reasons of quality or safety; and
• how childcare supports families to move into sustained employment and out of poverty.