Arranging childcare can feel like trying to solve a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle – only half the pieces are missing and the others keep changing shape. Multiple work patterns have to be negotiated and mapped out. For the lucky few, grandparents may be gently coerced – or even strong-armed – into offering a helping hand.
Then there is the eye-watering cost, which in the UK is among the highest of leading economies, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Once parents have cleared these hurdles, there is still the small matter of actually finding provision – whether it is with a childminder, nursery or private nanny. For the most coveted nurseries, demand is high, with some children added to waiting lists soon after the moment of conception. Fewer than half of local authority areas report having enough childcare to cover the needs of parents working full-time.
If your head is hurting with the effort of calculating the cost of childcare, then help is at hand with this interactive. We assume your baby started nursery in September when they were 10 months old. As they progress through life, your child will benefit from some of the new childcare cost help that the government announced earlier this year. Let’s begin.
How many hours of childcare do you need a week?
Having an under-two at nursery full-time costs close to £300 a week, according to data from the Department for Education. Childminders are a cheaper option, costing on average 16% less than nurseries.
Prices depend on where you live, with the London boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea the most expensive areas. A week in the capital costs 50% more than a week in Yorkshire and the Humber.
How much might your childcare cost an hour?
Your baby is now 10 months old, potentially crawling around your home and merrily finding new hazardous situations. As well as switching off every plug and installing baby safety locks in all low drawers, you are close to receiving your first nursery bill:
But, while childcare costs are undeniably high, the real problem is affordability. In other words, the proportion of your salary that goes to pay the bill.
If you receive universal credit, tax credit or any other benefit please enter the details below.
If you receive no benefits, simply enter your household income. This information will not be saved or stored by the Guardian.
The government’s plan to expand the free childcare schemes may alleviate some of the burden from parents once fully introduced in September 2025, but experts argue that with no workforce plan in place it will increase pressure on nurseries, who will be unable to cope with demand.
Providers have long complained that the system is underfunded, with hundreds of nurseries recently saying that the government’s extension is “undeliverable” and that it would lead to a shortage of places.
The government has increased hourly funding rates, but campaigners argue it is still not enough.
A survey of 800 providers by the Early Years Alliance shows that most settings are not planning to increase their capacity under the new government scheme, while many of them plan to offer a limited number of places.
Childcare providers have traditionally used the fees from younger children to cover the gap between the funding they receive from the free schemes and their real costs. With the expansion of these schemes to the youngest children, they argue that their margins to make services viable will be reduced.
Another survey by the Department for Education in November showed that one in 10 providers responded that they were likely to close owing to cost pressures, while half said the income was not sufficient to cover costs.
The issue of tax-free childcare – a government tax break for working parents that can be used to reduce after-school club and holiday club bills until a child is 11 – is also a bugbear for childcare reformers. At the end of 2021, Treasury figures showed that the government spent less than budgeted on tax-free childcare every year since it was introduced in 2017, underspending £2.4bn between 2017-18 and 2020-21.
Anti-poverty campaigners also warn that limiting the reform to “working parents” excludes the poorest children, who would benefit the most from high-quality early years education. According to the Sutton Trust, 70% of those eligible for the current “free” 30 hours are in the top half of earners, and 13% are in the bottom third of the income distribution.
Charities and academics have also warned that hundreds of thousands of parents who rely on universal credit, most of them women, will be negatively affected by the government plans, especially when the child turns three, driving some families into debts.
The head of Coram Family and Childcare, Megan Jarvie, said parents had struggled with high and rising costs for many years, meaning that “many are locked out of work or struggle to make ends meet”.
“Even if parents can afford the cost of childcare, gaps in availability mean some families are not able to find the childcare they need. High-quality childcare is key social infrastructure, it helps parents work and narrows the gap between poorer children and their more affluent peers. We need to see complete reform of the childcare system so that it meets the needs of all families.”
Neil Leitch, the chief executiveof the Early Years Alliance, said the government’s 30-hour expansion put pressure on providers “to deliver even more places at a time when the infrastructure simply isn’t there to deliver them”.
He added that if providers limit the number of funded places they offer, families will struggle to benefit from the new scheme. “It is absolutely vital, therefore, that the government works with the sector to ensure that settings are well-equipped, sufficiently staffed, and crucially, adequately funded to deliver both the existing and new offers. Anything less is a recipe for disaster.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said the government was delivering its “single biggest investment in childcare in England ever”, including an increase of the funding rate, recruitment campaigns and improving qualification routes into the sector.
The expansion of 30 hours of free childcare “will save eligible working parents up to an average of £6,500 per year. By 2027-28 we expect to be spending £8bn in total every year to support parents with flexible and affordable childcare and give children the best quality early years education”.
Families with children under 16 living in the UK can also apply for child benefit to cover any cost, but parents on higher salaries may be affected by the high income child benefit charge and there is a two-child benefit cap that prevents parents from claiming benefit for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017.
Methodology
This interactive is not meant to substitute official information about childcare support. The government website offers a more detailed explanation of the help available and the upcoming changes, as well as benefit calculators to help you with this task.
Childcare cost data comes from the Department for Education and Coram Childcare and Family. The median gross annual pay is taken from the Office of National Statistics. Although users are invited to enter their net monthly income, the gross salary is used if they select a regional average due to data availability.
To calculate childcare benefits, we assume both parents are over 25 years old, they are not receiving any other benefit or have a child with disabilities or have a disability themselves and they are both working. We also assume they are registered with an approved childcare provider in England.
The government’s 15 and 30 hours free childcare are evenly distributed across the year and the total of 1,140 and 580 free hours available are stretched over the 52 weeks. Free childcare entitlements are also flexible and parents can access 10 hours in a day with no additional cost. This piece assumes the benefits are applied the month the child turns a year older and top-up fees are introduced since the child is eligible for 15 hours of free childcare. Prices change over time, according to an analysis of government figures, and the cost of the free childcare schemes are based on the new government funding rate using the national average data.
A family might be entitled to receive universal credit, tax credits or other types of benefits when they have their second child, but this project does not account for this as we cannot assess if users are eligible for every type of benefit.
Owing to the complexity and the amount of personal information needed when parents are on benefits such as universal credits, we have recreated a representative and realistic scenario based on research by Coram Family and Childcare.
The Guardian has been advised by Coram Childcare and Family to develop this project.
