The Government's plan to scrap tax relief on employer-supported childcare is just another proposed change to what is already an unnecessarily bureaucratic system of funding childcare.
There are too many forms of funding: tax credits; employer-assisted childcare, including vouchers, which favours higher-income two-parent families; 'free childcare' for 390 to 580 hours a year (when to qualify for the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit, parents have to work 16 hours a week, or 832 hours a year); as well as direct contributions from parents, grandparents and others.
There are also far too many channels for funding: from Government to parents to provider (tax credits); from employer to voucher company to parent to provider (employer assisted); from central Government to local government to providers (free hours); and so on.
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