Government announces a package of childcare support
The Government has today announced a package of extra childcare support for families, including increasing tax-free childcare, introducing a £50m early years pupil premium and covering 85% of childcare costs for 300,000 of the most disadvantaged families.
Commenting Paul Soames, CEO at Contact a Family and Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) campaign board member:
"Any increases in support for childcare are to be welcomed especially for those on the lowest incomes. However for many families with disabled children taking the steps back to work are simply not an option due to a lack of good quality, affordable childcare for this group of children. Even with this increase in financial support, this will continue to be a problem.
While many parents with disabled children juggle jobs with complex care arrangements and family life against the odds, too often they are forced out of the labour market due to higher childcare costs compared to other families and provision that is unsuitable because their child has a disability or medical need. This coupled with significant extra costs associated with raising a disabled child is leaving families struggling on low incomes with no choices.
The EDCM campaign and Contact a Family would like to see all political parties recognise and tackle the ongoing childcare problem faced by families with disabled children once and for all. "
Notes to Editors
• Contact a Family is the leading UK charity working with all families with disabled children. Visit the website www.cafamily.org.uk
• Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) is a campaign to get rights and justice for every disabled child.
• Families with a disabled child pay five times more towards childcare costs compared to other families [1]
• 52 per cent of families with a disabled child are at risk of experiencing poverty
• Only 16 per cent of mothers with disabled children work, compared to 61 per cent of other mothers
• It costs up to three times as much to raise a disabled child, as it does to raise a child without disabilities