The Netherlands system has been held up as one with elements that the UK could adopt by the British Government, but its reforms appear to be running into trouble.
In 2012, 73 of 2,200 childcare centres went bankrupt, compared to 12 the previous year. Demand for places dropped by 15 per cent in 2012 and a further 10 per cent so far this year as unemployment has risen and the cost of childcare has gone up due to tax credit cuts.
Since the beginning of 2012, the Dutch government has only provided childcare tax credits for the hours worked by the parent in dual earner households who works the fewest hours, usually the mother, in an attempt to increase the number of women working full time.
However, resistance to this in the Netherlands along with the tax credit cuts has led to a fall in maternal employment and an increasing use of informal childcare.
Dr Eva Lloyd, reader in Early Childhood at the University of East London and co-director of ICMEC, the International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare, said, ‘The Dutch system is entirely focused on working parents rather than the child in society. If you do not uncouple the system from parental employment, you are bound to run into problems.’
