Nursery World - Disadvantaged families to be encouraged to take up childcare

Children from poor families with out-of-work parents are less likely than children who are better off to attend an early years setting or use the free entitlement to childcare for three- and four-year-olds, says a new report.

The study by the National Centre for Social Research was commissioned by the DCSF to help pinpoint strategies to enable families with 'multiple disadvantage' - such as unemployment, poor health and poverty - to access more childcare opportunities.

Affordability is still a 'major barrier' to early years provision, but deprived families were also found to have more negative perceptions about the quality and availability of their local childcare.

The report called for 'more targeted efforts to improve the provision of information about childcare to families experiencing multiple disadvantage, which may well lead to more positive perceptions of childcare'.

Low take-up of the free entitlement could be partly due to a lack of awareness, the study suggested.

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