Universal childcare: Is it good for children?
We are delighted to announce that our research director Dr Maria Lyons has had her report published by independent think tank Civitas. Maria has reviewed 40 academic studies on universal childcare and finds a worrying lack of evidence on its supposed benefits.
Universal childcare is frequently claimed to give every child the ‘best start in life’ but is this really the case? Is it really better than care by a parent at home? Does it really increase the educational outcomes of children? And what about their well-being?
“How formal childcare affects any individual child will depend on multiple different factors, and this includes family circumstances and preferences.”
The Report summary concludes:
“How formal childcare affects any individual child will depend on multiple different factors, and this includes family circumstances and preferences. The only logical response to this diversity of needs is genuine choice for parents on how and where to spend their childcare entitlement. From the perspective of child development, there is no evidence-based justification for public money to be spent on out-of-home care but not in-home care. Claims about the society-wide benefits of these policies are likewise found to be based on little more than ideological conviction.
“The report concludes that, in the realm of early years policy, political leaders and campaigners have become so fixated on universal childcare as the answer that they have forgotten to ask the most important questions: what supports the healthy development of young children, and what do families need in order to create the conditions in which their children can thrive? For some families, affordable, accessible, high-quality professional childcare is the answer. For other families, quite possibly a majority of families, the answer is more rather than less time spent together. The political imposition of a one-size-fits-all approach to the care and upbringing of young children is not good for parents, it is not good for society and it is not good for children.”
MAHM campaigns for:
Childcare subsidy to follow the child with parents allowed to chose whether they use it to stay at home, give it to grandparents, childminder or external setting.
Taxation should fall fairly on those who stay at home and those who work.
Public examination on short and long term needs of children (and the effect on infants of long hours in external settings).
Recognition of value of unpaid care (estimated at £77 billion by Carers UK).
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“The political imposition of a one-size-fits-all approach to the care and upbringing of young children is not good for parents, it is not good for society and it is not good for children.”