London has a long history of local authority intervention and high levels of maternal employment. Local authority funding was being withdrawn early 2004. A key issue for many providers is how to adapt to a mixed economy of childcare, by shifting form supply-side to demand-side funding.

Source: Harris, et al. 2004

The local authority has played a minimal role in the childcare market before the introduction of the National childcare strategy in 1997. The childcare market has historically been dominated by the private sector and influenced largely by the needs of well-off parents. Therefore, a key challenge for the EYDCP was to redress the imbalance created by market forces and provide affordable provision for less well-off families.

Source: Harris, et al. 2004

This area is characterised by a low level of childcare services. Much of the limited provision that exists has only recently been established through initiatives such as the Sure Start. There seems to be an ingrained culture of distrust of formal childcare as informal provision is strongly favoured and widely available.

Source: Harris, et al. 2004

Until 1998, the council had traditionally been reactive rather than proactive in relation to childcare, which resulted in low levels of provision due to low demand. The establishment of the EYDCP team has led to an increase in provision. The childcare market in the region has to provide flexibility for parents’ work patterns (atypical and/or seasonal), has to be affordable for low income parents and has to overcome the distrust of formal provision and strong tradition of informal care.

Source: Harris, et al. 2004

Turnover rates for nursery staff were, predictably, higher in London, the East and the South East. In any case, there was less regional variation for playgroup staff. A different picture again can be seen for Out of School clubs, which may reflect a different staff mix.

Source: Eborall 2003, chapter 6.4. Based on the DfES 2001 Childcare Workforce Surveys.