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Childcare deserts: the reality of access to early years education

How the current approach fails to support more low-income households to access care


There has been intense media scrutiny over recent weeks of the government’s roll-out of additional free hours’ of childcare for working parents in England. Critics are concerned if the government is providing enough funding to providers to cover these hours of care and whether there is a sufficient workforce to deliver them. In turn, many parents are finding that they can’t find childcare places to make use of the expanded offer the government has promised.

None of this will come as a huge surprise to anyone who has been following the debate around childcare since the government announced the expansion of the free hours’ scheme just over a year ago. NEF argued for an improved funding settlement and a greater focus on workforce development in our report last November on the need for a Universal Basic Services approach to early years education and care.

We also highlighted the issue of childcare deserts’ – areas where there are three or more children for every available childcare place. At the time, half of all local authorities met this definition. This foreshadowed the challenges around access many parents are currently experiencing. But the location of these deserts’ highlights much more fundamental issues with how childcare is designed, delivered and funded.

We split all local authorities into five groups based on their average ranking on the Index of Multiple Deprivation’ measure. This covers things like levels of income, employment, health and crime. Then we looked at what proportion of local authorities in each of quintile of deprivation met the childcare deserts’ definition. We found a clear and stark correlation between deprivation and access to early year’s education, demonstrated in the graph below.

Figure 1: The most deprived local authorities are also the most likely to be childcare deserts’

At first glance, one interpretation of this graph might be that a marketised model of childcare fails to serve poorer areas of the country. But the reality is actually far worse. The distribution of access reflects how the funding model has been designed by government and the families they have prioritised. The full offer of free hours’ is only available to families where all parents who can work are doing so for at least 16 hours per week. This is a condition that fewer households will be meeting in more deprived areas of the country.

Within the government’s framing of childcare – that its primary function is to enable parents, mostly mothers, to work – some might argue that this allocation of resources makes sense. But even if we accepted this premise, many unemployed and underemployed parents of young children would find it much easier to seek work if childcare was free and easy to access. Instead of providing childcare as a universal foundation, it is dangled as an incentive for parents who can make the transition into work.

However, the more fundamental problem with the government’s approach is that it fails to support and encourage more low-income households to access early years education and care. The Sutton Trust has found that accessing at least 20 hours of high-quality early years education would help to close attainment and development gaps between children from low- and higher-income households. NEF analysis last year also showed that there would be significant economic returns from increasing access to early years education for children from low-income households. 

Figure 2: Extending high-quality provision to those on low incomes brings significant benefits

NEF analysis has shown that making access to early years education equal across the whole country, at the level enjoyed in local authorities furthest away from being childcare deserts’, could create over 120,000 new jobs, concentrated in poorer areas. The table below shows the vast gap between those local authorities with the largest number of children for each available childcare place and those with the highest levels of provision per child. The accompanying graph maps out all local authorities by their ratio of children to childcare places and their level of deprivation.

Figure 3: Local authorities with the most children per childcare place are also the most deprived

Local authority

Number of 0 – 5 year olds to each childcare place

Rank of average IMD rank* (1=most deprived, 150=least deprived) **

Local authorities with highest number of 0 – 5 year olds to each childcare place

1) Walsall

6.55

26

2) Sunderland

5.73

27

3) Slough

5.69

53

4) Hartlepool

5.14

21

5) Kingston upon Hull

5.07

9

6) Wolverhampton

4.91

16

7) Leicester

4.71

19

8) Dudley

4.67

74

9) Rotherham

4.61

40

10) Newham

4.58

11

Local authorities with lowest number of 0 – 5 year olds to each childcare place

1) Richmond Upon Thames***

1.61

147

2) Wokingham

1.78

150

3) Bromley

1.97

131

4) Trafford

2.02

121

5) Warrington

20.7

108

6) Brighton and Hove

2.08

89

7) Windsor and Maidenhead

2.1

149

8) Wandsworth

2.11

107

9) West Berkshire

2.12

145

10) Surrey

2.16

146

* The rank of average rank is an official figure produced by the MHCLG. It is taken by taking the average IMD rank of each neighbourhood (aka LSOA”) in a Local Authority across all IMD domains. The rank of these average ranks across all Local authorities is then taken.
** North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire Local authorities are excluded from the list, because they were only created in 2021, before the latest version of the ONS data at the time of the analysis (2019)
** The City of London has been excluded from this list as an outlier with a ratio of 0.5 due to the low number of residents compared to the number of people who come into the area to work

Figure 4: Local authorities with the most children per childcare place are also the most deprived

The persistent message from government has been that childcare is for the benefit of parents working at least 16 hours a week. As a result, there is not a widespread cultural or social expectation that all children should receive early years education. Nor is it seen as a public good in the way that school is. As such, it is not clear how much equalising levels of provision across the country would increase the number of children from low-income households accessing it.

Increasing take up of early years education among low-income households, benefiting children and helping parents to find a job or increase their working hours, will therefore require a coordinated effort from government, involving a shift of both policy and narrative. At NEF, we are working on an alternative funding model, in partnership with Pregnant Then Screwed, that could sit at the heart of this new approach – we will be sharing more on this soon.

Annex 1

Following a number of requests for the full underlying data for this analysis, the below table was added on 5 June 2024.

Local authority


Number of 0 – 5 year olds to each childcare place

Rank of average IMD rank* (1=most deprived, 150=least deprived) **

1

Walsall

6.55

26

2

Sunderland

5.73

27

3

Slough

5.69

53

4

Hartlepool

5.14

21

5

Kingston upon Hull

5.07

9

6

Wolverhampton

4.91

16

7

Leicester

4.71

19

8

Dudley

4.67

74

9

Rotherham

4.61

40

10

Newham

4.58

11

11

Thurrock

4.56

77

12

Middlesbrough

4.55

14

13

Torbay

4.55

38

14

Barking and Dagenham

4.4

5

15

Sandwell

4.38

8

16

Wakefield

4.27

49

17

Cumbria

4.24

86

18

Durham

4.23

50

19

Doncaster

4.2

33

20

Bradford

4.16

18

21

Knowsley

4.15

3

22

Luton

4.1

41

23

Stoke-on-Trent

4.07

13

24

North East Lincolnshire

4.07

51

25

South Tyneside

4.05

22

26

Tower Hamlets

4.03

23

27

Coventry

4.03

58

28

Brent

4

39

29

Barnsley

3.94

30

30

Nottingham

3.84

10

31

Redcar and Cleveland

3.84

48

32

Blackpool

3.82

1

33

Manchester

3.82

2

34

Derby

3.76

64

35

Birmingham

3.7

6

36

Norfolk

3.64

81

37

Somerset

3.64

92

38

Cornwall

3.63

60

39

Enfield

3.62

46

40

Medway

3.62

70

41

Northumberland

3.55

84

42

Telford and Wrekin

3.53

71

43

Suffolk

3.49

99

44

East Sussex

3.48

93

45

Sheffield

3.47

66

46

North Lincolnshire

3.45

79

47

Plymouth

3.43

52

48

Stockton-on-Tees

3.4

76

49

Hounslow

3.39

67

50

Bolton

3.38

37

51

Darlington

3.37

73

52

Central Bedfordshire

3.37

137

53

Liverpool

3.35

4

54

Southend on Sea

3.34

83

55

Sefton

3.33

63

56

Devon

3.33

109

57

Waltham Forest

3.32

36

58

Hillingdon

3.32

94

59

Newcastle upon Tyne

3.27

54

60

North Tyneside

3.27

82

61

Haringey

3.23

29

62

Blackburn with Darwen

3.22

12

63

Bedford

3.21

97

64

St Helens

3.2

32

65

Herefordshire

3.19

88

66

Rochdale

3.17

15

67

Redbridge

3.13

98

68

Ealing

3.12

62

69

Gateshead

3.1

43

70

Swindon

3.1

105

71

Isle of Wight

3.09

57

72

Wirral

3.03

56

73

Shropshire

3.03

100

74

Oldham

3.02

25

75

Peterborough

3.01

42

76

Derbyshire

3

103

77

Leeds

2.99

65

78

Reading

2.98

90

79

Dorset

2.97

116

80

Harrow

2.95

117

81

Kent

2.94

95

82

Kirklees

2.93

61

83

Southampton

2.92

44

84

Portsmouth

2.92

45

85

Salford

2.88

17

86

Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole

2.85

102

87

Essex

2.85

113

88

Staffordshire

2.85

114

89

Solihull

2.85

119

90

Worcestershire

2.84

104

91

Bury

2.82

75

92

Bath and North East Somerset

2.81

140

93

Bristol

2.79

59

94

Wigan

2.77

69

95

Nottinghamshire

2.75

101

96

Croydon

2.74

72

97

Oxfordshire

2.74

141

98

Barnet

2.73

112

99

Isles Of Scilly

2.73

133

100

Warwickshire

2.72

118

101

Milton Keynes

2.71

106

102

Sutton

2.71

129

103

Southwark

2.65

35

104

Calderdale

2.65

55

105

Halton

2.64

31

106

North Somerset

2.63

127

107

Lincolnshire

2.6

91

108

Greenwich

2.58

47

109

Kingston upon Thames

2.56

139

110

East Riding of Yorkshire

2.55

123

111

Rutland

2.55

148

112

Stockport

2.54

96

113

Merton

2.54

122

114

Camden

2.53

85

115

Westminster

2.5

87

116

Bexley

2.5

115

117

Havering

2.49

110

118

West Sussex

2.48

124

119

Gloucestershire

2.48

125

120

North Yorkshire

2.48

126

121

Hackney

2.47

7

122

Lancashire

2.47

78

123

Cheshire East

2.47

130

124

Hammersmith and Fulham

2.43

68

125

Wiltshire

2.41

132

126

Islington

2.4

24

127

Lewisham

2.37

28

128

Kensington and Chelsea

2.36

80

129

Cheshire West and Chester

2.36

111

130

Leicestershire

2.34

136

131

York

2.34

142

132

South Gloucestershire

2.31

138

133

Hertfordshire

2.23

134

134

Bracknell Forest

2.23

143

135

Cambridgeshire

2.22

128

136

Hampshire

2.2

135

137

Lambeth

2.19

34

138

Tameside

2.18

20

139

Buckinghamshire

2.18

144

140

Surrey

2.16

146

141

West Berkshire

2.12

145

142

Wandsworth

2.11

107

143

Windsor and Maidenhead

2.1

149

144

Brighton and Hove

2.08

89

145

Warrington

2.07

108

146

Trafford

2.02

121

147

Bromley

1.97

131

148

Wokingham

1.78

150

149

Richmond upon Thames

1.61

147

150

City of London

0.5

120

* The rank of average rank is an official figure produced by the MHCLG. It is taken by taking the average IMD rank of each neighbourhood (aka LSOA”) in a Local Authority across all IMD domains. The rank of these average ranks across all Local authorities is then taken.
** North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire Local authorities are excluded from the list, because they were only created in 2021, before the latest version of the ONS data at the time of the analysis (2019)


Image: iStock

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