A childcare system fit for the future?

In the OECD, the UK appears a generous spender
on childcare and early education: in 2011,
gov-
ernment expenditure represented 1.1% of GDP
(including pre-school), which was above the
OECD average of 0.8%, but behind Denmark
(2%), Iceland and Sweden (both 1.6%; OECD,
2014). In terms of child poverty and mothers’
employment the UK lags behind countries such
as Sweden, Finland and Slovenia, which spend
more on services to families than cash bene
-
fits; the UK does the opposite. We argue that
the UK’s current demand-priming approach is
too complex, inefficient and unsustainable and
provides a low baseline of provision compared
to other countries. This results in a shortage
of supply, prohibitively high costs for parents,
wide regional variation and negative impacts
on women’s employment. We argue that the
next government’s priority should be to move
towards funding and developing a supply-led
system with capped fees based on a sliding-fee
scale.