The report, Childcare: How local markets respond to national initiatives, produced by the NCSR for the Department for Education and Skills, acknowledged that although the Government's concentrating of initiatives such as Neighbourhood Nurseries and children's centres on the 20 per cent most disadvantaged wards in England 'seemed to have succeeded in reaching some key target groups', it did not necessarily lead to new jobs. There remained a lack of employment opportunities for mothers in two of the three deprived areas in the study.
The report said, 'The future success of childcare policies in these areas was believed to be closely linked to the success of regeneration policies.'
The study's director Ivana la Valle said, 'The Government schemes have succeeded in reaching parents who aren't working or are poorly paid. But there are problems where there aren't many jobs available for parents in these areas. And obviously, not all low-income families live in disadvantaged areas and these families aren't benefiting from these schemes.'
The report focused on four areas in England that corresponded roughly to primary school catchment areas - a 'London area' in a deprived inner city borough, a 'south-east commuter area' in one of the poorest parts of a generally wealthy town outside London, a 'north-east city area' comprising a housing estate on the outskirts of a city with high unemployment and poverty levels, and a 'south-west rural area' that included a number of small villages in a rural district council.
The report addressed four key questions - if and how the Government funding strategy was stimulating new and sustainable supply; whether the market was creating affordable childcare for all; how responsive the childcare market was to parents' diverse needs; and the impact of targeting in the 20 per cent most deprived areas.
It found out-of-school provision was 'still patchy and often struggling to become financially viable despite years of pump-priming', and a key obstacle was 'schools' reluctance to engage with the childcare agenda'. But it added that the extended schools initiative 'might succeed in creating more favourable market conditions for out-of-school providers'.
The report also said, 'The financial stability of out-of-school providers was generally fragile, due to the low number of hours for which services were provided and the relatively low levels of income that this implied.
Demand for these services was variable and unpredictable, leading to problems with financial forecasting and staff planning.'
Anne Longfield, director of 4Children, said, 'These are all things that we recognise and support. While there has been a large increase in out-of-school childcare, there are cities with large areas with out-of-school clubs and large areas without.
'As for the extended schools initiative, there are some parts of the country where schools aren't active in making it happen or seeing it as a priority.'
Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'The Government assumption that where Neighbourhood Nurseries are, the jobs will follow, is wrong. Childcare plays only a small part in an area's regeneration.
'But this report has focused on four areas that are a law unto themselves with regard to childcare provision. I do not think that overall it gives a good cross-section of what is happening.'
The report is on the DfES website www.dfes.gov.uk/research.
