SMF publications Launch: The Parent Trap: Illustrating the growing cost of childcare

Welcome from: Julian Foster, Managing Director, Computershare Voucher Services; Speakers: Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Shadow Employment Minister; Elizabeth Truss MP; Sarah Jackson OBE, Chief Executive, Working Families; Ryan Shorthouse, Researcher, SMF;
Chair: Ian Mulheirn, Director, SMF
High-quality, affordable formal childcare is critical for children’s development and parental employment, bringing significant private and public benefits. In this new paper, the SMF explores the changing level of financial support and the rising cost of formal childcare between 2006-07 – the high-water mark of public financial support for childcare – and 2015-16. The analysis demonstrates how childcare affordability has deteriorated and will continue to decline in the years ahead.