The Minister, yesterday published results of a wide-ranging survey on childcare undertaken in July by Ipsos on behalf of the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
The nationally representative survey of more than 500 families found that:
- For young children not yet in school, the main childcare arrangement used was parental care (45%) followed by regulated early learning and care (27%), childminders (16%) and grandparents or other relatives (10%).
- The majority of young children not yet in school (84%), were in their parents’ preferred childcare arrangement for early learning and childcare.
- Almost 50% of parents using non-parental care for children not yet in school found it difficult to pay for it and 32% of parents using regulated early learning and care for children not yet in school reported they did not receive any State subsidy.
- For school-going children under 15, the main after-school childcare arrangement used was parental care (69%) followed by regulated school-age childcare (11%), grandparents or other relatives (8%), and childminders (7%), while the main childcare arrangement for during school holidays was parental care (77%) followed by grandparents or other relatives (10%), childminders (4%) and regulated school-age childcare (3%).
- More than 90% of school-going children were in their parents’ preferred arrangement for childcare. • More than one in five parents using non-parental care for school-going children found it difficult to pay for it and 80% of parents using regulated school-age childcare reported they did not receive any State subsidy.
