Childcare accessibility in the United Kingdom

Aworld-first study by Australia’s Victoria University (VU) pinpoints access to childcare in nine developed nations with different approaches to childcare. 

International childcare: Mapping the deserts (PDF, 1.8MB) determines relative accessibility to childcare for more than 10 million children, by analysing data from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Netherlands, France, Norway, Sweden, and Australia.

Led by VU’s Mitchell Institute, the findings reveal that when it comes to accessing childcare, where you live matters. This report clearly shows – down to a suburb level – the neighbourhoods with the best access and those with the worst.

The UK childcare story

In 2023, the UK government announced 30 hours of free childcare in England for children aged nine months to five years for working parents. As this starts to roll out, what is the situation on the ground? Where are the places? What are the challenges?

To answer this, we first need to know how much childcare is currently available and how accessible it is to families. International childcare: Mapping the deserts helps answer these questions through examining current levels of childcare accessibility.

We found when it comes to childcare, the type of neighbourhood you live in matters. For nations like England and Wales, as neighbourhoods become more advantaged, childcare accessibility generally increases. In Australia and Scotland, the lowest socioeconomic decile has slightly higher than average childcare accessibility, but it is the more advantaged areas that enjoy greatest access.

Of the nine regions across England, the North West, London and the South East rank best for accessibility, with the smallest number of people living in a childcare desert. Meanwhile, the West Midlands, Yorkshire and The Humber and the North East have the greatest number of people living in a childcare desert.

A childcare 'desert' does not mean there is no childcare available in a neighbourhood. There are many factors that impact childcare supply and demand, including the availability of government subsidies and the level of workforce participation.

But if one neighbourhood has a lower accessibility score than another, this indicates that families in that neighbourhood are more likely to have difficulty finding care where and when they need it.

In fact, it is within regions and cities that the differences in childcare accessibility can be most pronounced. We found that, especially in England, it is the affluent parts of town that generally has the best childcare accessibility.

Mapping childcare accessibility in the UK

Explore the results of our analysis through an interactive map.

Access the interactive map of the UK

Even among local authorities, there are big differences in childcare accessibility. Cambridge has the best accessibility, with more than twice that of local authorities like Torridge, South Staffordshire and Walsall, which have the lowest.

View our map exploring childcare accessibility in England.

Access the interactive map of England

The models of care in the UK

Nations within the UK have different approaches to childcare, but most have a mix of both supply- and demand-side funding. Supply-side funding generally involves more direct payments to providers, regardless of the number of hours a child attends a centre. This is similar to the way that school systems operate. Demand-side funding focuses more on subsidies to parents, and there is usually greater variation in the fees charged by providers.

To help meet the promise of expanded entitlements in England, the incoming Labour Government promised to increase the supply of childcare by creating 100,000 places in 3,000 new nurseries. These places are slated to be located at schools. In our research, we found that many systems have a mixture of school-based and non-school-based delivery. This meant that we were able to analyse different parts of childcare systems to see if accessibility varied according to the type of delivery provider.

In the figure below, we compare the different parts of systems in England, Wales and Australia. We looked at whether school-based provision (like preschools) had different levels of accessibility compared to childcare or long daycare. We found that the parts of the system that were market-based and demand-side focused generally had greater provision in the more advantaged areas. However, for the parts of the system that were supply-side focused, and generally more organised like the school system, it was the reverse: there was greater accessibility in the more disadvantaged areas.

Access differs markedly within countries

Our research shows that the experience of accessing childcare is not the same for all families living in the same country.

One feature of demand-side models is there is less central or government involvement in the planning and location of childcare places. For instance, in school systems, governments usually have a greater role in the delivery and management of school locations, at least for government-run schools. Childcare can be different because it is providers who usually decide where to operate. Because of this, it is important to explore the different incentives that influence where childcare centres choose to operate.

One way to explore incentives is through price, or the amount of money that a provider receives in a particular location. Some countries collect data on the average price in a region and this makes it possible to explore the relationship between accessibility and price.

The figure below shows the average hourly fee (in British Pounds) by the number of children per place in local authorities in London. It shows that there are higher fees in locations where there are more providers. This suggests that more providers operate in areas that are likely to lead to the greatest rewards.

This socioeconomic relationship is evident in most market-based systems where providers set fees and families are required to navigate often complex price and subsidy mechanisms to access childcare. When coupled with the need to meet eligibility criteria, some childcare markets can create exclusionary effects for families living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The lack of available places in disadvantaged areas means not all families can ‘choose’ to access childcare, despite the notion of ‘choice’ being central to many childcare policies. Access to childcare shapes many of the choices families make following the birth of their children.

The fewer available childcare places in lower socioeconomic areas often means that families are forced into making more difficult decisions such as staying home instead of returning to work or travelling long distances to obtain care.

Case study: Georgia Fenton

Georgie Fenton, from Worcestershire, is a surveyor and solo parent of a one-year-old daughter, Lucy, who was conceived through donors. Nursery places were so limited that during her pregnancy, numerous friends told Georgie that she’d need to get her unborn child registered with a nursery as soon as possible in order to get the place she wanted. However, by the time her daughter began nursery at nine months old, the nursery had already put its prices up twice.

Lucy attends nursery three days a week, has a babysitter on a fourth day, and spends the remaining three days of the week with Georgie. For a solo parent, this has become financially crippling – with the monthly nursery fees now higher than Georgie’s mortgage. Ideally, Georgie would like to work fewer than four days per week, but has to weigh this up against her outgoings, including childcare costs.

“It is sad to think availability and finances rule what care you can give your child. As a solo parent, not a single parent, I have nobody I can share the load with. There needs to be more accessible and affordable childcare for parents, especially if we want mothers to remain in the workforce," Georgie said.

'Funding Follows the Child’ reforms in Scotland

Childcare policies in the UK are devolved and therefore differ across the four nations. Scotland’s childcare provision has more elements of universal provision compared to the other parts of the UK.

In Scotland, there is a universal funded entitlement to early childhood education and care of 1,140 hours annually for all three to five year old and eligible two year old children.

Since August 2022, the Scottish Government has been implementing its ‘Funding Follows the Child’ reforms. All families are entitled to the free hours regardless of parental or guardian employment status.

In our study, we found that Scotland had some of the highest levels of accessibility. However, there were still differences within the country. As the map below shows, some local authority districts have better accessibility than others. More research is needed to understand why.

View our map exploring childcare accessibility in Scotland.

Access the interactive map of Scotland 

What's next?

International childcare: Mapping the deserts aims to help fill a major gap in our understanding about childcare. This report shows that when it comes to childcare accessibility, system design matters and government policies have a major impact.

Common amongst many nations is that childcare access differs depending on the socioeconomic status of the area, with more disadvantaged neighbourhoods experiencing lower levels of access. This socioeconomic relationship is evident in most market-based systems where providers set fees and families are required to navigate often complex price and subsidy mechanisms to access childcare.

This means that, coupled with the need to meet eligibility criteria, some childcare markets can create exclusionary effects for families living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The lack of available places in disadvantaged areas means that not all families can ‘choose’ to access childcare, despite the notion of ‘choice’ being central to many childcare policies.

Access to childcare shapes many of the choices families make following the birth of their children. The fewer available childcare places in lower socioeconomic areas often means that families are forced into making more difficult decisions such as staying home instead of returning to work or travelling long distances to obtain care. This research highlights the many more areas that require further investigation, including:

• What type of government intervention is most effective in improving childcare accessibility?
• What is the best practice in linking childcare accessibility to other policy areas such as paid parental leave?
• How does accessibility impact quality?
• What are the costs of different models and how can further investment be directed to where there is the greatest need?
• How have changes in government policy affected overall accessibility and what lessons can be learned from these changes?

The detail in this study means it is not possible to cover all the stories that emerge from this analysis. The data is available for you to explore in our related analysis, thanks to Victoria University and the Mitchell Institute.

We intend to keep exploring the data and releasing further analysis into this vitally important area of research.

Methodology

We use an approach known as an extended two-step floating catchment area, which has been used extensively to measure the relative access to services such as hospitals, parks, schools, and medical doctors.

This approach places a catchment area around the demand (where children live) and the supply (where childcare centres are located) and distributes the number of available places according to how far children live from centres. It means that for every population centre or neighbourhood, which is usually one of the most detailed statistical building blocks, a number is produced that shows how many childcare places are available per child in that area.

A note on language

We use the term childcare in this report to describe a range of formal services that are designed for children before they start schooling. These settings usually include centre-based daycare, preschools, creches, childminders, nurseries and kindergartens. It is important to note that the term childcare is not preferred by many working the industry, despite its widespread acceptance. Read more about the use of language and terms in childcare (PDF, 172KB).