Nursery World - 'Childcare cuts poor parents' incomes'

Using daycare to enable low-income parents to go out to work may reduce their household incomes in the short term, new research has found. Researchers looked at the experience of 120 families and 143 children aged between six months and three years, half of whom were allocated to an Early Excellence Centre - the Mapledene Early Years Centre in the London borough of Hackney, which offered them a full- or part-time place with an option to change depending on the circumstances. The other half answered questionnaires and in-depth interviews. By the end of an 18-month period in summer 2002, the researchers found that almost a quarter (23 per cent) more women using the centre were in paid work compared with those mothers whose children had not been allocated a place.

Researchers looked at the experience of 120 families and 143 children aged between six months and three years, half of whom were allocated to an Early Excellence Centre - the Mapledene Early Years Centre in the London borough of Hackney, which offered them a full- or part-time place with an option to change depending on the circumstances. The other half answered questionnaires and in-depth interviews. By the end of an 18-month period in summer 2002, the researchers found that almost a quarter (23 per cent) more women using the centre were in paid work compared with those mothers whose children had not been allocated a place.

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