Equality and Human Rights CommissionPolicy

WorkingBetterChildcare Matters:improving choices and chances for parents and children

1Working Better

Introduction 2

Key findings 4

Why childcare matters the case for change 5

What parents want 5

Childcare is an issue of equality 5

Improving child outcomes 7

The role of childcare in moving children out of poverty 8

The childcare workforce and gender 9

Childcare as an investment 9

Challenges 11

Lack of access to quality early years education and care 11

Cost 11

Poor information 13

Shortage of places 13

Lack of provision for disabled children 14

Lack of provision for school-age children 14

Lack of flexible childcare 14

Quality of provision 15

Developing solutions 17

Conclusions 20

Contents

2 Working Better

Through its flagship Working Betterproject, the Equality and Human RightsCommission (the Commission) hascreated a new evidence base on worklifebalance, flexible working and sharedparenting. We found that parents todaydefy the traditional mother and fatherstereotypes and want a wider range offlexible job opportunities in all types ofjobs; policies that reflect the social andeconomic benefits of integrating work and care; more financial support from theGovernment for paternity and parentalleave; and more affordable childcare.

The first Working Better1 report focusedon leave provision and flexible working,calling for policy change in particular a re-configuring of maternity, paternityand parental leave, to better meet theaspirations of modern parents for sharedwork and caring and to give children thebest start in life.

In Working Better: Childcare Matters we turn our attention to the fourth askfrom parents affordable childcare. We draw on evidence from a wide range of sources including a comprehensiveliterature review of parents and childcare,2

a major survey of modern families,3 andHow Fair is Britain? the CommissionsTriennial Review,4 to explore whethercurrent childcare provision supports orhinders parents in their choices for workand care. We highlight the importance ofquality, flexible, accessible and affordableearly years education and childcare forimproving child outcomes, life chancesand social mobility and identify significantbarriers to take-up, particularly among

those families with the most to gain, withability to pay being a key factor.

This is a critical time for childcare andearly years policy. Evidence suggestssignificant challenges remain in providingmore places, of the right quality, and at an affordable price for all. Improvingprovision against a background ofspending reduction demands that changeis fully informed by evidence of whatworks and what doesnt, so that benefitsfor children and families can be sharedmore equally and not further ring-fencedfor the better-off.

Introduction

I am fortunate that my employerhas very good family policies and is flexible and supportive of my needs. They will pay foradditional childcare if there areany problems with my existingprovider. I will also be able to be flexible in my working hours and work from homesometimes if necessary. Modern Familes on-line forum

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There is strong evidence of theimportance of quality, flexible,accessible and affordable early yearseducation and childcare for improvinglife chances and social mobility forparents, children and families.

Recent childcare policy has come a long way in improving provision andhelping families combine their workand family lives.

However, there remain considerablegaps in childcare provision particularlyfor disabled children, older children,out-of-school and holiday options andchildcare for those working atypicalhours, with a pressing need to expandthe overall number of places.

There are also variations in use inrelation to family characteristics.Formal childcare use is higher in lessdeprived areas and children fromworking and higher-income families are more likely to use formal childcarethan those from non-working andlower-income families.

Childcare use is not a simple issue ofpreference the ability to pay is a keydeterminant of access to appropriatechildcare. Among parents paying forchildcare, around a fifth said that theystruggled to meet their childcare costs.This proportion was significantly higher among lone parents, familieswith low incomes and those living indeprived areas.

Many parents still say they want betterand more affordable childcare. Giventhat the childcare strategy has focusedattention on disadvantaged families, it is a matter of some concern thatchildcare choices still seem to be more readily available to those who can afford to make them.

Lack of affordable, flexible and qualitychildcare impacts most on low paid and lone parent groups. Those childrenmost at risk of poor outcomes and with the most to gain from quality early education and care, are least likely to use it.

There is extensive evidence of positiveimpact on child development and of thespecific qualities and types of settingsthat deliver the best results. Childcarepolicy going forward needs to develop,support and resource provision for all,built on these factors.

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Key findings

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Why childcare matters the case for changeWhat parents want

While some parents will always choose to stay at home with their children, themajority want to find ways of combiningwork and care. Childcare is a key elementof opening up the choice to do that andaffordable childcare was one of four key asks from parents in the ModernFamilies survey.

Childcare provision has improved but the current system is still failing many.Twenty-eight per cent of non-workingparents say they are not working due toinadequate childcare provision and justover a half said they would prefer to workif they could find quality, affordable andreliable childcare. Over a half of non-working lone mothers say they wouldprefer to work if suitable childcare were available.

Childcare is important for womens career progression. Extended periods out of the labour market impact negativelyon womens careers. And limited andinflexible childcare provision confineswomen to low-paid part-time work within school hours and term-time.

There is evidence that many parents arefitting work around the limited childcaretimings and places available rather thanchildcare supporting work and care choices.

In 2008, in England, 5.5 million childrenaged 0-14 were receiving childcare. Ninety per cent of 34 year-olds were in

childcare, reflecting the impact of the freeentitlement, dropping to 59 per cent of 0-2year-olds. Sixty-five per cent of parents inEngland use some kind of childcare, oftena patchwork of formal and informal, withgrandparents the most common source ofinformal support. Nearly a fifth of parentsdraw on support from grandparents in atypical week.

Poorer families are much less likely thanthose on higher incomes to feel that theirworking arrangements are the result ofchoice rather than necessity.

Childcare is an issue ofequality

Helping families to combine work and careis an essential step in achieving equality byenabling better access to the labour marketfor women and a chance for men to spendmore time caring for their children.

The Commissions Triennial Review hashighlighted as one of five top equalityobjectives the importance of giving everyperson the opportunity to play a part instrengthening Britains economy, withclosing the gender pay gap a key part ofthis challenge. Being able to access qualitywork commensurate with skills levels,through the availability of better and moreflexible childcare, rather than being forcedinto low-paid part-time jobs, will help to close the pay gap. The economy willbenefit too better use of womens skillscould be worth in the region of 15bn-23bn to the economy each year.5

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The important role of early yearseducation and care has been highlighted in the recent National Equality Panelreport as a key factor in any strategy toreduce inequality in the UK.6

Improving child outcomes

The pre-school years are a crucial time forchildrens cognitive, social and emotionalgrowth. The What Parents Want Reviewreports a substantial body of evidenceshowing that there are considerablebenefits of good quality early yearseducation and childcare for children.

Outcomes and achievements in adulthoodare closely linked to cognitive and socialcompetencies developed in childhood.Good cognitive abilities are associatedwith educational attainment later in life and therefore indirectly with higherwages. Social skills also contribute to later life outcomes: skills related toattention are associated with highereducational qualifications, while socialadjustment is associated with improvedlabour market participation, higher wages and reduced likelihood of beinginvolved in criminal activity.

Social scientists find that early yearsdevelopment (both cognitive and social)depends on family characteristics, such as parental socio-economic status andeducation, and parental behaviour.

The quality of the home learningenvironment (HLE) and parentalaspirations are particularly important for childrens development. One studysuggests that good quality HLE has the strongest impact on childrensdevelopment and may counteract some of the negative effects of socialdeprivation.

The quality of pre-school and primaryschool education and care also matters forthe development of cognitive and socialcompetencies, with quality settings havinga positive impact on child outcomes.

The Effective Provision of Pre-SchoolEducation project7 found that, regardlessof all other factors, children who did not experience any pre-school provisiondemonstrated lower cognitive abilities and poor social/behavioural developmentat school entry, especially peer sociability,independence and concentration. For those who attended pre-school for two years, cognitive development at the age of 5 was four to six months more advanced than those who had notattended at all.

While benefits for over 3s are widelyaccepted, evidence on the impact ondevelopment of childcare settings for 0-2s is less conclusive with some limitedevidence suggesting risk of low-levelproblem behaviours (worry/upset), in long hours of centre-based or childmindercare. Commenting on the evidence, theDfE has suggested that high qualitychildcare can reduce the negativeoutcomes.8 Pilot projects testing theextension of the free hours offer to 2 year-olds in disadvantaged areas supportthis, with findings of improvements invocabulary and significantly betterparentchild relationships where childrenhad attended quality settings. In assessingthe relative benefits of quality childcarefor 0-2 year-olds, the quality of maternalcare and the family environment is key,with evidence of some children fromdisadvantaged backgrounds showingbetter behaviour and development informal childcare.

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Benefits of childcare and early yearseducation appear to be particularlysignificant for children from ethnicminorities, with survey evidence showingthat for certain outcomes, especially pre-reading and early number concepts,children from some ethnic groups,including Black Caribbean and BlackAfrican and children for whom English is not their first language, made greaterprogress during pre-school than WhiteBritish children or those for whom Englishis a first language. Despite this positiveimpact, fewer children from ethnicminority groups participate in formal pre-school childcare.9

The importance of early intervention for breaking the cycle of inequality and underachievement and improving life outcomes is well recognised. Also well-evidenced is the extent to whichinequalities in development linked toincome and characteristics are already in place by the age of five.

The Triennial Review included data on thepercentage of children achieving a goodlevel of development by age 5, using theEarly Years Foundation Stage Profile(EYFSP) and found that only 35 per cent ofpupils known to be eligible for free schoolmeals achieved a good level comparedwith 55 per cent of pupils not eligible.

There is also a relationship between thesocio-economic wellbeing of an area andthe percentage of pupils achieving a goodlevel of development. Using the IncomeDeprivation affecting children Indices2007, 39 per cent of pupils in the mostdeprived 10 per cent of areas in Englandachieved a good level of development atEYFSP, compared with 67 per cent in theleast deprived 10 per cent of areas.

For pupils with special educational needs(SEN) (both with and without a statement)15 per cent achieved a good level ofdevelopment compared to 65 per centfor those pupils with no identified SEN.

This signals the importance of tackling thebarriers to take-up of formal childcare andearly years education provision that canhelp to improve early development levelsand life outcomes recognising thatdisadvantaged families and children withthe most to gain from quality provision are currently less likely to access it.

The Triennial Review has set as its secondof five top equality objectives societyshould aim to ensure that every individualhas the chance to learn and realise theirtalents to the full. A significant challengein achieving this is identified as reducingthe disparities in educational performanceby socio-economic background. There issufficient evidence of the positive impactof quality early years education andchildcare to suggest that extending accessto quality provision across all low incomegroups would help to close the attainmentgaps between children from low and highincome families.

The role of childcare inmoving children out ofpoverty

Four out of 10 children living in povertyhave a mother who is a lone parent. Afurther three out of 10 children in povertyare in families where the father works and the mother has no or low income.

A Joseph Rowntree report10 concluded that appropriate childcare provision could move between a sixth and a half of children out of poverty today.

models particularly for lone parent familiesand evidence that suggests children canbenefit from seeing men in childcare as itchallenges gender inequalities. It has beensuggested that low pay in the childcaresector is a deterrent for men and that moremen in the sector could drive up pay.

Childcare as an investment

Recent research, Backing the Future,11

suggests that investment in earlyintervention and universal services,including early education and childcare,would save the UK economy 486 billionover the next 20 years and would improvechild wellbeing. A Canadian study12

similarly found that investing in childcareprovided a strong economic stimulus.

Estimates by the Institute of Fiscal Studiesfor Daycare Trust (2009) suggest that 9 billion would be needed to raise allgroup based care to high-quality standards.At a time of national cut-backs major newspend is unlikely but there is extensiveevidence of short and long term benefitsfor children, families and the economy and these should be factored into policy decisions.

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Appropriate childcare can support moretypes of families into employment and atthe same time improve child outcomes,thus reducing child poverty in the longer term.

There is some evidence from the US thateconomic outcomes can be influenced,alongside developmental outcomes. Also,early years provision can help eradicateintergenerational child poverty dependingon its quality high quality consistentlyyields better outcomes. Countries such asDenmark and Sweden have reduced thenegative link between low parentaleducational attainment and income, andequivalent low outcomes for their children,with equal access to early years provisionand social mixing in childcare playing a keyrole. This contrasts with the US and UKwhere parental income remains a keydeterminant of childrens outcomes, withthose in lower income groups achievinglower outcomes.

The Treasury, with DWP and DfE, have alsoidentified childcare as having a key role toplay in the child poverty strategy.

The childcare workforceand gender

Evidence of fathers wanting greaterinvolvement with their childrens educationand care is not reflected in the make-up ofthe early childhood education and careworkforce characterised by a low-paid,gendered workforce: 98 per cent are women.

Reasons put forward for increasing thenumbers of men working in childcareinclude the benefits of recruiting from a wider pool of labour, the combined skills and experiences of a more diverseworkforce, the importance of male role

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Lack of access to qualityearly years education andcare

While evidence points to measurablebenefits of quality early childhoodeducation and care for child development,it also reveals, disappointingly, that earlyyears experiences vary for differentgroups. Those children most at risk ofpoor outcomes and therefore, arguably,with the most to gain from quality earlyeducation and care, are least likely to use it.

Non-working, low income families areless likely to use formal childcare thanworking and higher income families.There has been no increase in thenumber of children taking up formalchildcare in lower income familiesdespite this being a public serviceagreement (PSA) government target.

Children from two parent familieswhere both parents worked were more likely to receive formal childcare (53 per cent) than those who had only one parent in work (38 per cent) or whose parents were not working(23 per cent).13

Families experiencing multipledisadvantage have low levels ofchildcare use and are more negativetowards formal provision yet arguablyhave the most to gain from it. Formalchildcare use is lower in the mostdeprived areas 34 per cent in themost deprived quintile compared with 53 per cent in the least deprivedquintile in 2008.14

Appropriate childcare for disabledchildren is reported as being scarce andexpensive,15 with concerns about stafftraining for dealing with disabledchildren, and evidence of lower usageby children with SEN than thosewithout.

Fewer children from ethnic minoritygroups participate in formal pre-schoolchildcare. Research has identified costs,but also preferences to stay at homelinked to culture or social norms aspossible reasons for this. Recentresearch has found that careeraspirations among Pakistani andBangladeshi young girls and women arehigh and this generational change maydrive change in childcare usage.16

Cost

Childcare is expensive and oftenunaffordable. A survey of parents in 2008found that 37 per cent of parents thoughtthat childcare was unaffordable, with cost reported as a barrier to childcare use (and work) particularly among low income families, lone parents and thosenot currently using formal childcare.

There is an association between use offormal childcare and family income.Research has found that 58 per cent offamilies with incomes of 45,000+ usedformal childcare compared with a third of families below 10,000.

Challenges

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A quarter of non-working mothers withpre-school children mentioned theaffordability of childcare as a reason fornot working.17 Among parents paying forchildcare, a fifth said they were strugglingto meet childcare costs. This proportionwas considerably higher among loneparents, families with low incomes andthose living in deprived areas.

The ability to pay is a key determinant ofaccess to appropriate childcare.Affordability divides families and is aparticular barrier to low income and loneparent families, though it is also a keyconsideration for a wide range of parents.

The evidence is showing the benefit of theentitlement to free childcare places forworking parents of 3 and 4 year-oldswhich has attracted a high take-up.However, as indicated above, childcare useis higher in less deprived areas, and forsome groups of parents, such as loneparents, there is a lower than averagetake-up.

The planned extension of the entitlementto 15 hours, on a more flexible basis, andthe extension to disadvantaged 2 year-oldsis welcome. Questions remain aboutimproving childcare for 0-2 year-olds,which can be the most expensive time for parents.

More affordable childcare was among the top four recommendations made byparents in the Modern Families survey in order to enable them to achieve a better worklife balance, along with better flexible working opportunities and better paternity leave and pay.

Poor information

Some parents have not traditionally usedformal childcare and typically, the mostdisadvantaged families are still lessinformed and less likely to use it, evenwhen it is free. Those groups known tohave lower rates of formal care use (non-working families, lone parents, those withlower incomes) were less likely to havehad access to recent information aboutchildcare, more likely to say they had toolittle information on childcare and morelikely to say they were unsure about theavailability, quality and affordability ofchildcare in the local area.

Evidence suggests that some immigrantfamilies may face barriers when accessinginformation on the services available.

Parents need to have access to fullinformation on childcare local quality,availability and on the positive benefitsthat it can bring, to ensure that they aremaking informed decisions about whether to use it.

More affordable childcareshould be made available to giveparents/carers the opportunity to work if they so wish. Peopleshould have the opportunity tochoose and not be restricted byaffordability. It is a huge factorfor consideration when having a child if you can afford to return to work and arrange for childcare, especially for those on a lower/average wage. Modern Familes on-line forum

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childcare requirements. Parents withdisabled children are significantly lesslikely to feel that they achieve a goodcompromise between work and childcare.

Lack of provision forschool-age children

For school-aged children, formal childcareprovision is limited before and after schooland during holidays. Demand for this wasparticularly high among lone parents. The wraparound18 provision of childcarearound schools and school-aged children,is inadequate and fragmented andarguably a policy area much in need of attention.

Shortage of places

Despite an increase in childcare places,with approximately one childcare place forevery three children under eight, 93 percent of local authorities report gaps inchildcare provision in: childcare beforeand after school, holiday care, care forolder children, provision for children with SEN and disabilities, provision forparents working atypical hours and, insome places, care for those under two.There is a wide variation in provision ofchildcare across the Government regionswith a review of Childcare SufficiencyAssessments finding a mismatch betweenthe services on offer and those demandedby parents in some areas.

The childcare market is dominated by the private, voluntary and independentsectors (80 per cent of provision) andthere is evidence of market failure andshortage of places, particularly indisadvantaged areas. In 2009, over a third of parents felt there was insufficientchildcare places in their area.

Evidence suggests that the growth inplaces has slowed and is close to stalling.

Lack of provision fordisabled children

Appropriate childcare for disabledchildren is scarce and expensive. Nearlyhalf (49 per cent) of Family InformationServices in both England and Walesreported that there was not enoughchildcare provision in their area fordisabled children.

Parents of disabled children have fewerchildcare options. For these families,survey evidence shows that one or otherparent is likely to stay at home to cover

Lack of flexible childcare

Childcare provision is not always flexibleenough to meet parents working hours.The welcome increase in flexible workinghas not been matched by an increase in flexible childcare. There is very littleformal provision available outsidestandard hours (before 8am, after 6pm, or at weekends), despite evidence showingthat a growing number of parents needchildcare at these times, often to coveratypical working hours and that asubstantial number of mothers workatypical hours, particularly evenings and Saturdays.

...school helps us a great deal inthe sense that he really enjoysgoing to two of the after schoolclubs (football and drama) so we dont have to worry aboutchildcare issues two days a weekas the clubs go on until wevefinished work. Modern Families on-line forum

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Anecdotal evidence points to penalty feesfor parents arriving late and outsidestandard hours to collect their children.Whereas in other parts of Europe, forexample the Nordic countries, parentalaspirations are supported by highlydeveloped early childhood education andcare, in the UK, parents are working thehours necessary to fit in with the provisionavailable. Hence the predominance ofwomen (some highly-skilled) in low paid, part-time work rather thanchildcare and flexible working supportingwork choices.

Quality of provision

The review has found that there are a number of key features of qualityprovision these include being in themaintained sector, having childrenscentre status, higher qualifications level of staff and pay levels above the generallylow levels for the sector.

Being in the maintained sector is a strongpredictor of quality, with better childsocial interactions, improved languageand reasoning skills, better literacy,maths, science and diversity of activities.Quality is best in the maintained sectorand in childrens centres and worst in theprivate sector (although quality varies).19

Yet only high quality early childhoodeducation and care has been shown to make a positive contribution to the cognitive and social development of children.

Ofsted has also found that quality isgenerally poorer in disadvantaged areas.While Sure Start Childrens Centres arerated highly for the quality they provide in the most deprived areas, there areinsufficient to meet local demand. In 2008, there were only 1,000 Childrens

Centres providing full daycare in England, compared with 56,200childminders and 13,800 other providers of full daycare.

Having graduate-level, trained teachershas the greatest impact on quality and child outcomes. There has been a recent focus on improving skills andqualifications in the workforce through the Graduate Leader Fund but there is no long-term funding to support higherreward. Sixty-six per cent of the earlyyears workforce are qualified to level 3 (A level), with only 11 per cent qualified to degree level.20 The maintained sectorhas more staff at graduate level than the private, voluntary and independentsectors.

In a 2010 Daycare Trust survey, parentsranked the following criteria whenchoosing childcare: staff, well-qualified,trained or experienced (74 per cent);warm and caring atmosphere (59 percent); Good Ofsted report (44 per cent),and cost (36 per cent).

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Evidence points to the importance ofclosing gaps and take-up, both in pre-school and school-age childcare provisionthat currently impact negatively on workopportunities for parents, and on childoutcomes, particularly in workless and low-income families.

Action is needed to drive up both supplyand demand. Cost is already a barrier forsome parents, however, and particularlyfor those whose children could benefitfrom high quality childcare and early years education. Reduction in support for childcare costs will compound theproblem, with higher cost to parents,already stretched to meet fees, creating a disincentive to work. A key question to be addressed in the current review ofchildcare policy is how can affordable,flexible, quality childcare, that supportswork for parents and better childoutcomes, be provided in such a way as to deliver both high quality care forchildren and proper reward to thoseworking in the sector but withoutpassing on costs to parents?

Developing solutionsTo answer this, the followingconsiderations need to be factored intopolicy development:

the association between quality,maintained provision and higherqualification levels of staff and the link to better child outcomes

the positive impact on take-up,particularly among disadvantagedparents, of the free offer for 3 and 4year-olds

the inadequacy of childcare provisionfor disabled children and theimportance of rolling out the disabledChildrens Access to Childcare project

the need for policy development totackle the fragmented nature ofwraparound provision of childcarearound schools and school-agedchildren

the importance of atypical childcareprovision to enable parents workingflexibly and with atypical work patternsto use childcare

the importance of improving the gendermake-up of the workforce

the need to simplify the complex raft offunding streams for parents and forproviders and to build in sustainability

finding ways of better using the LocalAuthority childcare sufficiency regimeto ensure parents needs are being met

improving information services,including understanding of the benefits of quality childcare, andtargeting them at groups currently not accessing childcare services

Our area is very good in thisrespect, childcare at the localschool goes up to 7.00pm as does the local nursery. Modern Families on-line forum

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building on plans to extend the freeentitlement to disadvantaged 2 year-olds and finding new ways ofproviding support for low incomefamilies to access quality childcare for children aged 0-2 years-old, with all the associated benefits for work and life outcomes

the possibility of extending thedisadvantage premium not just todisadvantaged families but also todeprived areas where evidence points to the market operating poorly with lowtake-up of early years provision andhigh levels of underachievement

whether there are flexible alternativesto mainstream provision, for examplesitter-services, given the failure of thechildcare market to provide flexiblechildcare

the importance of equality impactassessing policy decisions on childcareprovision and funding and support forparents, and taking steps to mitigatenegative impacts, recognising thecurrent equality issues for women,disabled children, lone parents andethnic minority children identified inthis report.

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Evidence from the Modern FamiliesSurvey suggests that parents are lookingfor more equal work and care roles.Flexible work and good childcare areessential to support these aspirations, but currently choices are constrained by limited, costly and, in some cases, poor quality childcare provision.

For mothers, choosing to work is still a fraught decision, with the fear thatchildcare will be detrimental to the childsdevelopment and happiness factoredstrongly into decision-making.

There is extensive evidence of positiveimpact on child development and of thespecific qualities and types of settings thatdeliver the best results. Childcare policygoing forward needs to develop, supportand resource provision for all that is builton these quality factors.

While some parents will always choose to remain at home with their children, the way in which childcare is currentlyprovided constrains choices for somefamilies more than others because of:

High costs

Limited availability

Inflexible timing

Poor quality in some areas and settings

These barriers to take-up impactparticularly on low income families, lone parents and parents of disabledchildren, despite the fact that recentchildcare strategy has focused onimproving childcare for disadvantagedfamilies. It is disappointing, therefore,that evidence still points to higher take-upamong those working and able to pay inhigher income groups.

The childcare market operates imperfectlywith supply and demand problems linkedto costs for both parents and providers.Many parents find childcare too expensiveand further reduction in childcare supportwill exacerbate this problem. The increasein take-up for 3 and 4 year-olds, when thefree entitlement kicks in, points to theimportance of extending the entitlementto younger children and particularly tothose disadvantaged if the benefits ofchildcare for parents and children are tobe more universally available.

Conclusions

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1 Working Better: Meeting theChanging Needs of families, workersand employers in the 21st century.Equality and Human RightsCommission 2009.

2 Childcare A Review of What ParentsWant. Verity Campbell-Barr and AlisonGarnham, University of Plymouth andDaycare Trust. Equality and HumanRights Commission 2010.

3 Work and Care: A Study of ModernParents. Gavin Ellison, Andy Barkerand Tia Kulasuriya, You Gov. Equalityand Human Rights Commission 2009.

4 Triennial Review, How Fair isBritain? Equality and Human RightsCommission 2010.

5 Increasing Employment Rates forEthnic Minorities. National AuditOffice 2008. London: The StationeryOffice.

6 An Anatomy of Economic Equality in the UK. Report of the NationalEquality Panel. GEO 2010.

7 EPPE Technical Paper 8a: Measuringthe Impact of Pre-school on ChildrensCognitive Progress. Sammons, P.,Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Siraj-Blatchford, I., Taggart, B. and Elliot, K.2002. London: DCSF.

8 The great nursery debate. Guardianwww.guardian.co.uk/.../nurseries-childcare-pre-school-cortisol-

9 Early Years, life chances and equality:a literature review. Paul Johnson andYulia Kossykh, Frontier Economics.Equality and Human RightsCommission Research Report Series,Research Report 7 2008.

10 Childcare and Child poverty. JaneWaldfogel and Alison Garnham for TheJoseph Rowntree Foundation series:Eradicating Child Poverty, the role ofkey policy areas 2008.

11 Backing the Future: Why Investing inChildren is good for us all. Aked, J.Stauer, N., Lawlor, E. and Spratt, S.2009. Action for Children and NewEconomics Foundation.

12 Cupe.ca/economics/study-major-benefits-investing-child

13 Childcare and early years survey ofparents 2008. Speight, S., Smith, R.,La Valle, I., Schneider, V. and Perry, J., with Coshall, C. and Tipping, S.,2009. DCSF/national Centre for Social Research.

14 Speight et al. 2009.

15 Verity Campbell-Barr and AlisonGarnham 2010.

16 Moving On up? The Way Forward.EOC Investigation Report 2007.

17 Ellison et al. 2009.

18 Wraparound care here refers to schoolsthat are open beyond the school day inorder to offer childcare. The care maybe provided by the school or inpartnership with another childcareprovider and can include breakfastclubs, after school clubs and holidayclubs.

19 Verity Campbell-Barr and AlisonGarnham 2010.

20 Childcare and Early Years ProvidersSurvey 2008. Phillips, R., Norden, O., McGinigal, S. and Cooper, J. London: DCSF/BMRB 2009.

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Equality and Human Rights Commission Published November 2010

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