This week, we asked Anand (pictured above) to comment on some of the biggest challenges facing parents who use childcare, and describe the work that Daycare Trust undertakes.
“Daycare Trust is the national childcare charity, and we have been working since 1986 to promote high quality affordable childcare for all. We know how important it is to make the right decision about childcare for your child and we hope that we can help you to find out more.
This week, we publish our findings on holiday childcare costs in the UK, and see a 3% increase in the average cost of one week of holiday childcare since last year, but we also note the increase of over 10% in both Scotland and Wales. When we look at a local level, we see that just one in three local councils have enough holiday childcare to meet the needs of families in their area.
There continues to be significant gaps in holiday childcare across Britain, especially for older children, disabled children, and children living in rural areas.
We hope that new services, such as those supplied by Care.com, where parents and carers can find each other directly on-line, will help to provide a more efficient and targeted childcare market.”
Anand also told us about the ongoing work undertaken by Daycare Trust:
“Our other campaigning work continues to focus on childcare affordability, listening to parents and keeping children at the centre.
We are delighted that Care.com recently sponsored our National Childcare Week, in which we promoted and encouraged the relationship between childcare providers, especially with grandparents and dads.
For the last 15 years, Daycare Trust has organised National childcare week, which serves as an annual opportunity to celebrate and raise awareness of issues in the childcare sector.
This year’s National childcare week asked childcare providers to reach out to, and involve families in the childcare experience, with a special emphasis on involving dads and grandparents.
Our reasons for doing this are simple. We know that the evidence shows that children do better when the partnership between home and the childcarer is strong. We know too, that in particular many grandparents and fathers would like to get more involved with their children’s care provision, but feel isolated and unsure about how to do so.
Recent studies have shown that grandparents are the unsung heroes of the childcare world, with parents increasingly turning to them in these tough economic times. Whilst there is little demand among grandparents for financial reward for providing childcare, many expressed a wish for greater involvement to help them support their grandchild’s development.”
We at Care.com wish your children a happy summer holiday, whichever holiday childcare you use.
