Private nurseries charge more than schools

The soaring cost of childcare in London is revealed today by an Evening Standard survey which shows many day nurseries are now more expensive than private schools.

We compared the cost of sending a two-year-old to a private day nursery for five half-days a week, or to an independent pre-prep school, and found that even allowing for school holidays, the range of nursery charges now outstrips that of schools.

Our survey highlights the financial strain on parents holding down a job and raising a young family while now facing the highest childcare costs in Europe.

It prompted the Day Care Trust, which campaigns for greater support for working parents, to renew its demand for more Government support for working families. Nationally, the trust says there is only one quality childcare place for every seven children under eight. In London, the imbalance is even greater.

Director Stephen Burke said the range of nursery charges suggested some care providers were exploiting a shortage of places - charges the trust's own research shows have risen 10 per cent in the past year.

Mr Burke said our survey, which also illustrates the varying cost of childcare from borough to borough, showed the flaws in the Government's ambitious plans to end child poverty.

He said tax breaks for working families helped many, but ministers now needed to boost the number of publicly-funded care places for younger children - as putting more money in the hands of parents while doing nothing to increase the supply of childcare places for under-threes was a bonanza for private providers.

Without more public investment in affordable services, he warned Prime Minister Tony Blair's pledge to abolish child poverty in a generation would fail, with children of the poorest families remaining trapped in a vicious circle of low incomes.

Access to quality childcare depends, above all, on income, the trust says. Nationally, parents pay three quarters of the cost, with the Government paying most of the rest and a small contribution from employers.

The high cost of childcare is the reason, it says, why only one in eight parents with dependent children use formal child care services all the time.

Independent schools were also surprised by the range of prices charged by day nurseries, even though they are covered by regulations on staffing ratios that do not apply to schools. Dick Davison, of the Independent Schools Council, said: "What independent schools provide is not just nursery care. It's a structured programme of pre-school education."

National Day Nurseries, which represents private day nurseries, denied they were exploiting the rising demand for childcare. A spokesman said supply of places had increased to meet demand, from 2,000 to 9,500 over the last 10 years, but costs had risen, particularly because of the introduction of the minimum wage.

"When you look at staffing ratios of one adult to four children aged two to three, day nurseries' charges are an accurate reflection of their costs," he said.