Childcare does not give young best start in life, report warns

CLAIMS that formal childcare gives youngsters the ‘best start in life’ are not backed up by evidence, a report out today argues.

Concepts of love and attachment have been largely absent from the discussion on what is best for children, it is claimed.

Universal childcare – where children are entitled to a free or cheap place at nursery or daycare – does not benefit the majority of youngsters, according to the report.

In its review of 40 studies on formal childcare from the UK and abroad, the Right-wing think-tank Civitas said there was a ‘worrying lack of support’ for many supposed benefits.

The most disadvantaged children were found to benefit from childcare – though the report said this is not the most effective way to help them.

Last year, the Government unveiled an expansion of free childcare to include youngsters aged between nine months and four years in the 30 hours a week of paid-for care from September 2025.

This will be rolled out in stages, with working parents of two-year-olds able to access 15 hours per week from this April. Labour, meanwhile, has pledged to roll out breakfast clubs to every primary school in England, allow councils to open more nurseries, and has launched a review of early years provision – but has not yet revealed what changes it would make.

Report author Maria Lyons, a stay-at-home mother of two and research director for the campaign group Mothers at Home Matter, said it was wrong to justify publicly funding out-of-home care over inhome care.

She said: ‘ The claim that universal childcare enhances educational outcomes for all children is directly contradicted by the evidence.

‘Enhanced child development is a claim that does not stand up to scrutiny, even in countries where the quality of childcare provision is widely regarded to be the best.’

‘The notion that it is within the power of the state to ensure every child has access to formal care that is superior to care provided in a loving family home cannot be described as anything other than sheer hubris.’

The report said it was not designed to ‘prove that children need to be with their mothers’ but to ‘ critically assess claims made about the benefits of formal childcare’.

It highlighted arguments that investment in universal childcare reduces the achievement gap between more and less advantaged children, boosts the economy through increased female labour participation, empowers women and enhances child development.

‘The effects of childcare will be different for each child,’ the report said. ‘Mothers should not choose full-time childcare in the belief that it offers developmental benefits for all, because this belief is false.

‘Choices are only “empowered” if they are made in the context of facts and free from pressure and manipulation. As parents, we know our children best and love them the most.’

A Government spokesman said the investment in childcare would ‘result in around 60,000 parents entering employment, on top of enabling many more parents, particularly mothers, to increase their working hours.’

‘We know our children best’