Parental choice of childcare in England: Choosing in phases and the split market

Abstract

This article explores how parents choose childcare settings for their pre‐school children within a context of complex policy on eligibility for free provision and a developing market. Using data from interviews with 17 mainly middle‐class parents in England, we explore in detail how parents go about choosing a childcare setting and the different phases of this process. This adds further nuance to the existing literature on choosing practices and the dysfunction and inequalities of a neoliberal childcare market, and also updates the discussion to include recent policy developments such as the provision of ‘30 hours free childcare’ for 3 and 4‐year‐olds. We conclude that parental choosing involves a series of decisions in two or three phases, which start from practical considerations, followed by quality comparison and then back to practical constraints if a decision has not been made. The options open to parents are split between not only those able to accommodate shorter ‘free’ provision and those that require longer periods of childcare to work, but also between those with children under three and above. Contrary to previous findings in this area, this split may work to the disadvantage of some middle‐class families, whose children attend lower‐quality settings as a result.

Policy actors in a hostile environment: the views of staff in maintained nursery schools in England

“…Competition between providers is intended to drive up standards, and providers are given Ofsted ratings, like schools, to help parents choose. Studies have explored how choices are limited, however, by locality, hours of opening, cost, and admissions criteria (Chen and Bradbury 2020;Vincent, Braun, and Ball 2010).…”

The potential of early years’ childcare to reduce mental health inequalities of school age children in Scotland

“…Thus, these policies are intended to reduce differential exposure in a way that could benefit inequalities. However, the types of childcare families use is, in practice, also affected by local and family-level factors, including the availability of places, age ranges covered by providers, opening hours, geographic location, and cost (which is relevant to wrap-around care, since parents often require longer hours than those offered through universal entitlements) ( Chen & Bradbury, 2020 ). These practical considerations are not static and depend upon the changing needs and resources of a family over time, meaning that childcare use can be dynamic.…”