High childcare costs trap mothers

Mothers who want to work are increasingly kept at home by the exorbitant cost of childcare, according to research published today.

About a quarter of non-working mothers say they would like a regular job but are prevented by high childcare costs, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Despite government efforts to tempt mothers into the workplace, women with children remain substantially less likely to be employed than those without.

Among mothers in part-time work, meanwhile, one in 10 say they would work longer hours if they had access to suitable and affordable childcare. Mothers in London are particularly poorly catered for, say the authors of the book, Mothers' Employment and Childcare Use in Britain.

While central London has proportionately more day nursery and after-school places than other parts of the country, childminders are relatively scarce.

The City of London, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Lambeth all offer among the poorest childminder provision in the country. Lambeth, for example, has only 313 childminder places per 10,000 populationand Kensington and Chelsea just 219, compared with Hampshire which has more than 1,300.

Parents in the capital also spend more of their income on childcare than anywhere else in the country. Economist Gillian Paull, who co-wrote the book with Jayne Taylor, said: "We've moved to a different set of barriers. There is evidence to suggest that it's now childcare rather than social expectations that is holding women with children back from working.

"There is a very distinct relationship between the availability of childcare and ability to work. London stands out as expensive. Childcare is not only more expensive in absolute terms, parents in London spent more as a proportion of their income than anywhere else in the country."

While the study recognises the Government's attempts to offer cheaper childcare to poorer families under the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC), the authors say its effect is limited.

Ms Paull said that while the scheme had encouraged single mothers back to work, it had done little to tempt women with partners because of the relatively small financial incentive. "If the Government's aim is to allow women to play more of an equal role in the workplace, the WFTC has not done the job," she said.

She said the problems do not disappear when children reach school-age because childcare commitments remain.

Ms Paull welcomed a scheme proposed by the Government under which grandparents and other family members would be paid to look after children. But she added: "I would have concerns about the practical implications. Would grandparents have to prove that their homes met safety regulations?"

The Daycare Trust charity has criticised the Government for failing to do more to help families meet childcare costs.

The charity's research has found that London has the highest childcare costs in Europe. A full-time nursery school place for a two-year-old child in the capital costs more than £7,000 per year, while the bill for a childminder is £110 a week - more than £5,700 a year.