Childcare has become the number one issue for many families, and MPs from all sides recognise that action is needed. 

The stakes are high for obvious reasons. Families need to be able to plan their lives, pursue their careers and trust that their children will be well looked after and educated. 

In recent years, we have seen a growing number of parents feel forced to sideline work to look after their children because childcare is too expensive. This has contributed to yawning gaps in our labour market, which undermines productivity. 

And then we have to ask how much development small children may be missing out on if they aren’t given a chance to learn from and play with a variety of children and adults. 

Inquiry on support for childcare and early years

I said throughout my campaign to become chair of the Commons Education Select Committee that childcare would be a priority of mine. And today, a month since I was elected, I am delighted to say we have launched an inquiry on support for childcare and the early years. 

Where to start with unpicking this knotty subject that so many intrinsically value? It was also only a month ago that Ofsted published research highlighting the importance of high-quality early education, especially for disadvantaged kids. They stated that “if children do not develop sufficient communication and language skills before starting school, this disadvantage persists and affects future attainment”.

So, knowing how important education is in these formative years, there is a clear case for probing the current system for educating children aged under five, which has been in place for 14 years. 

My cross-party colleagues and I will investigate whether that system, that’s been in place since 2008, is meeting the needs of pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND), and whether improvements could be made to better support and diagnose young children with SEND in early years provisions. 

It is ironic, given that childcare could become a useful tool for unlocking the UK workforce, that the sector itself is far from safe from recruitment challenges. A 2020 Social Mobility Commission report on the stability of the early years’ workforce stated that these professionals receive comparatively low pay and high work demands coupled with low social status. This all contributes to high turnover, with some looking for different career paths altogether.

So, our inquiry will aim to uncover the challenges early years providers face in terms of recruiting and retaining qualified staff, and any barriers that might stop people from joining the profession. We will also examine the lasting impacts of the pandemic after some childcare settings were forced to close. 

Learning from other countries

As ever with policy making, we would do well to look abroad and see what we can learn from the way it’s done in other developed countries. 

A 2021 UNICEF report on childcare ranked 41 countries on the affordability of childcare. Embarrassingly perhaps, the UK was placed 35th.

The UN agency said that, in 2020, a couple earning the average UK salary would have to wave goodbye to 30 per cent of their earnings to keep two small children in nursery. In sharp contrast, a couple in Italy would spend nothing thanks to the country’s free childcare policy. 

This poor rating is despite various changes to funding entitlements the government has introduced since 2010, including 15 hours of free childcare for three- to four-year-olds, with an additional 15 hours given to some eligible working parents.  

Among the most recent changes was the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme, where parents can put money into a TFC account, specifically used to pay for childcare, and the government will provide an extra 25 per cent on top of the cash parents put in. A 2021 report by Nuffield Health said the fund is “underutilised”, with the government only spending about a fifth of what they forecast due to poor take-up from parents, which an HMRC report suggests was due to a lack of public awareness. 

Could public money be used to better support parents?

The Commons recently debated whether more could be done to support childcare through the planning system and the inquiry will look into how this could most effectively be done. 

We will delve into the UK’s patchwork of schemes and entitlements and see whether public money could be used more effectively to better support parents to access flexible and affordable childcare. It will also assess how the current system can be simplified so that parents don’t miss out on billions of tax-free care.  

As we begin this inquiry, we want practitioners, academics, organisations and parents to tell us their answers to the questions set out in our inquiry’s terms of reference. If you want to help inform our work, visit the Committee’s website. 

Robin Walker is chair of the Commons Education Select Committee and former minister for school standards