Do current childcare policies deliver results and tackle child poverty?
23 October 2014
The House of Lords Committee on Affordable Childcare heard evidence on whether current childcare policies are working, on the day that a major new study is published. With childcare provision expected to be central to many election manifestos, the Committee heard from the report’s authors, as well as from representatives of child poverty charities.
Witnesses
Wednesday 22 October
In the first session, at 10.35am, the Committee heard from:
- Professor Mike Brewer, Director of MiSoC, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
- Dr Birgitta Rabe, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
In the second session, at 11.30am, the Committee heard from:
- Jonathan Rallings, Assistant Director of the Strategy Unit, Barnardo’s;
- Alison Garnham, Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group; and
- Helen Barnard, Policy and Research Programme Manager, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Questions
The Committee asked Professor Brewer and Dr Rabe what evidence there is that the free early education entitlement for 3 and 4 year-olds is working – is it improving children’s developmental outcomes? And is it helping mothers back to work? The free entitlement is a core plank of the Government’s childcare strategy, which the other main parties have pledged to either continue or expand in the next parliament.
At 11.30am the Committee spoke to witnesses about childcare, child poverty and social mobility. The Committee heard evidence on:
- the role of childcare in tackling child poverty;
- the barriers low-income families face in accessing childcare; and
- whether current policies of free early education and direct subsidy to parents are the best way to reduce child poverty and increase social mobility.