Background to the Research

• This report summarises the findings of a large scale postal survey which investigated the use and demand for daycare, nursery education and playgroup services among the parents of children under 8 years of age in Northern Ireland.
• The definition of daycare services included full or part daycare by relatives or friends, in daycare nurseries or crèches, and with childminders. In relation to children of school age, the definition included arrangements made by parents to care for children before school in the morning and after school in the afternoon or evening.

Research Approach

• A sample of parents of children under eight years was randomly selected from the Northern Ireland Child Benefit Register. A sample size of 13,000 represented 10% of all parents in the target group. Although the postal method imposed some limitation on the scope and complexity of the questionnaire which could be used, by careful design it was possible to obtain a wide range of detailed information without an unacceptably adverse affect on either the rate or quality of response.
  

Main Findings

• There is a wide range of services for children aged 0-7 years available to parents in Northern Ireland and these can be broadly grouped into three categories:

1. Professional/formalised childminding services such as private daycare, registered childminders, workplace nurseries etc;
2. Informal childminding facilities such as grandparents, other family and friends, unregistered childminders etc; and
3. Educational and pay provision such as nursery classes, playgroups, mother and toddler groups etc

• Perhaps the most outstanding finding of this survey is the heavy reliance of parents on informal childcare provision, especially grandparents. Many grandparents were prepared to provide their services free while the remainder made only modest or nominal charges. 72|% of pre-school children cared for by grandparents attracted no cost and the mean amount paid to grandparents per hour, 21.4 pence, compared very favourably with 104.6 pence for registered childminders, 96.7 pence for unregistered childminders and 125 pence for private daycare.
• The majority of parents also indicated that ideally they would like to care for their children themselves followed by family or friends; grandparents may seem as the optimal informal care providers due to their familiarity with the child and the similarity with the child's own mother's behaviour pattern.
• In relation to the prevalence of informal care there are two relevant points. Those who use grandparents for the care of pre-school children do so for a relatively small number of hours per week with a median of 14 hours per week. This compares with a median of 37 hours per week for those using registered childminders, 30 hours for unregistered and 27 hours for private daycare. The continued preponderance of care by grandparents may well constrain mothers to pursuing part-time employment with its concomitant effects on career development.
• Whilst many parents, regardless of their circumstances, enjoy access to grandparents as childcarers, access to both formally provided childcare and to educational/play provision is largely connected to circumstances. Due to the expensive nature of private daycare provision, usage of this facility is shown in the survey to be heavily skewed towards those in the highest income band (£400+ per week). Educational/play provision is far from comprehensive and it appears to be heavily dependent on the area of residence.
• Educational provision in the form of nursery school/classes is the most clear cut area of demand to be identified through the survey with 72% of those not currently using it saying they would do so if it were available. Current provision of nursery education appears to be more widely used by those with disadvantages: lone parents, non-working parents or parents of disabled children.
• Assessing actual demand for increased child services on the basis of the survey is in no way clear-cut. At one level, parents in the survey expressed close to unanimous satisfaction with current childcare arrangements. However this may reflect a stoical acceptance that no better alternative provision exists. This interpretation is supported by the considerable proportion of parents who state they would use services which they do not at present if these were available. With the exception of unregistered childminders (5.4%), a considerable percentage of non users desired to use services ranging from 18.1% for registered childminders to 72.3% for nursery classes.