What are the options?
Pre-school children
Day Nurseries
These look after pre-school children aged from six weeks to five years-old. They are usually open all day (between 8am and 6pm) but not evenings and weekends, so if you work shifts or weekends they might not be suitable or you might need to combine nursery care with another form of care. You can send children to nursery on a full-time or part-time basis. There are different types of nurseries including private, community, council and workplace nurseries. However all nurseries are registered and inspected by OFSTED.
Cost
Weekly costs vary, but average prices for a full time place per week are £100-£170, although three and four year-olds are eligible for a reduction in fees.
Further information
The Daycare Trust - The National Childcare Campaign
Childcare Hotline: 020 7840 3350
www.daycaretrust.org.uk
National Day Nurseries Association
Tel: 0870 774 4244
www.ndna.org.uk
Childminders
Childminders are self-employed child carers who will look after your child in their own home.
They must be registered with OFSTED and are inspected once a year. They can offer childcare before or after school, during school holidays or to your pre-school child. Childminders can often be flexible about their hours of care so this might be an option if you work early or late.
Cost
Childminders are usually paid on an hourly basis at a rate negotiated with the parent. Hourly rates vary around the country, but you can expect to pay between £90-£140 per week for a full time place. You'll need to discuss hours, holiday pay and other terms and conditions and ensure that details of these are included in the contract you have with your childminder.
Further information
National Childminding Association of England & Wales
Freephone Information Line: 0800 169 4486
www.ncma.org.uk
Scottish Childminding Association
Advice Line: 01786 449 063
www.childminding.org
Northern Ireland Childminding Association
Information and advice: 02891 881 015
www.nicma.org
Playgroups
These offer care and education for pre-school age children between three and five. Playgroups are also registered with OFSTED and are run by trained early years professionals with an emphasis on parental involvement. Playgroups often only provide day care on a 'sessional' basis with a session usually lasting about three hours. They also often have a long waiting list so register your child as soon as you can.
Cost
Parents usually pay between £3 and £5 per session. You may be asked to pay for a block of sessions in advance.
Further information
The Pre-School Learning Alliance
Tel: 020 6972 500
www.pre-school.org.uk
Using friends and relatives
Many Usdaw members choose to use family and friends to care for their children often in the child's own home. There are all sorts of advantages to this option - you and your child know and trust the carer, your child is looked after in his or her own home and so are familiar with it, there is less disruption to routine and so on. From April 2005, if a friend looks after your child in your own home they can register to become approved. This means that where you pay them for the care they provide you can apply for tax credits to help you with those costs.
Unfortunately family members are specifically excluded from the scheme. At the moment you can't get financial help to pay for any costs if a relative looks after your children.
Cost
The cost will probably be similar to that of employing a childminder.
Further information
Visit the Surestart web site at www.surestart.gov.uk or call the approval scheme national helpline on 0845 7678 111.
Pre-school nursery schools and classes
These are usually open during school opening hours and during term times only but this is changing and so it is important to ask. They offer care and education for children aged between three and five years-old. Some schools offer full-time places (between 9am and 3.30pm) but most only offer either morning or afternoon sessions so you might have to combine nursery school care with another form of care.
They can be run by local authorities (these are known as maintained nursery schools), or as a private business (independent nursery schools) or be part of a primary school. All are regulated by OFSTED.
Cost
If the nursery school is part of the state education system then the place will be free. However be aware that nursery classes at fee paying independent schools may charge.
Further information
Forum for maintained nursery schools and children's centres
Early Education
020 7539 5400
www.early-education.org.uk
School age children
Out of school care or kids' clubs
These offer play and care for school age children from around the age of three upwards. There are more and more out of school clubs in the UK offering a range of options. You might want a breakfast club - open before school starts or an after school club or a holiday play scheme. Kids' clubs are registered with OFSTED and are usually inspected about once a year.
Cost
The cost varies depending upon whether the club is privately run or not. Kids clubs normally cost between £5-£10 each session after school (private clubs will cost more). Holiday clubs cost between £40-£90 per week and privately run holiday play schemes cost around £150 a week.
Further information
4 Children
Contact information and membership helpline: 020 7512 2100
www.4children.org.uk
Paying for childcare
A lot of families are entitled to some form of help towards the cost of childcare, either from their employer or from Government, but don't know what's on offer. This section tells you about some of the financial help available.
Free part-time nursery education for three and four year-olds
All three and four year-olds are entitled to a free part-time nursery place. Several different childcare providers including nurseries, nursery schools/classes and playgroups can all offer part-time places. The Local Education Authority fund the part-time places (with payment made directly to the provider). They provide five sessions per week for 33 weeks of the year and each session lasts two and half hours.
If you need more childcare than is covered by the free part-time place you will need to make up the difference in cost yourself, however see the section below on tax credits for further information on extra financial help.
For more information about free part-time places contact your local Children's Information Service via ChildcareLink.
Tax credits
Child Tax Credit
This is paid to families with at least one child. Most families are eligible for some help where the total household income is below £58,000 per year. If you have a new baby (a baby under one) or a disabled child you can receive extra help. The tax credit is administered by the Inland Revenue and is paid directly into the bank account of the main carer.
Working Tax Credit
This provides a top up to those workers with a low wage. You do not need to have children to claim but extra help is available for working parents and disabled workers. It is paid to you with your pay packet.
Childcare element of Working Tax Credit
This is part of Working Tax Credit and supports parents with the cost of approved (registered) childcare. It can pay up to 80% of childcare costs up to a limit of £135 per week for one child and up to £200 per week for two or more children.
Further information
Tax Credit Helpline: 0845 300 3900
or 0845 300 3909 textphone
Or visit the Inland Revenue web site at www.hmrc.gov.uk
Usdaw has also produced the following resources, which you may find useful:
Childcare vouchers
Some employers offer childcare vouchers to their staff. They can do this in two ways - either as a benefit or as part of a salary sacrifice scheme. Childcare vouchers attract relief from National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for employees and employers and are therefore a very cost effective benefit. They also attract income tax relief on the first £50 per week.
As a benefit
Employers can give parents childcare vouchers to help them with their childcare costs. This is like giving parents an extra cash allowance but the above NIC and income tax savings apply.
Salary sacrifice schemes
This is where an employee agrees to give up the right to receive part of the cash due under his or her contract of employment in return for a non-cash benefit (vouchers) to pay for childcare. Again the above NIC and tax savings apply. The employer usually has to pay a management fee for this service, however the savings made on NIC's usually more than cover the costs of this fee.
Childcare vouchers up to the value of £50 per week will also be exempt from income tax for employees. However, some staff may be worse off by opting into salary sacrifice voucher schemes.
- Everyone in receipt of tax credits should check how opting for vouchers will affect them by phoning the Tax Credit helpline on 0845 300 3900 (minicom 0845 300 3909) or visiting the web site www.hmrc.gov.uk
Vouchers can only be used to pay for registered (or approved) childcare and employers offering this option will have to make it available to all staff.
Salary sacrifice schemes can affect your entitlement to sick pay and other benefits. So always get advice before opting for this.
Surestart
Surestart is the Government's programme for delivering better childcare services for children and families across the country. Extra help is targeted at some of the UK's most disadvantaged areas.
Surestart provides a range of services including the setting up of 67 Children's Centres based in the 20% most disadvantaged wards in England. The centres can offer a wide range of support. For example they can offer antenatal classes, information about local services and advice about benefits and tax credits, links to Jobcentre Plus and training providers, health advice and health clinics for new parents as well as access to good quality childcare.
It's really worth finding out if you live in a Surestart area because if you do, there is lots of support and help available to find childcare no matter what the age of your children.
To find out if you live in a Surestart area or for details of Surestart's local programmes visit the Surestart web site at www.surestart.gov.uk or telephone their public enquiry unit on 0870 0002288.
Having a say in when you work
There are times when you will inevitably need time off work to be with your children, or you may have just had a new baby and need a change in the hours you work. This final section outlines three important statutory rights parents have.
Time off for dependants
Employees do have the right to take reasonable (unpaid) time off work to
deal with an emergency involving a dependant including an unexpected breakdown of normal childcare arrangements.
Parental leave
Parents of children under the age of five who have been working for their employer for at least one year do have the right to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave per child. Leave has to be taken by the child's fifth birthday.
Parents of disabled children under the age of 18 have the right to 18 weeks unpaid parental leave that must be taken by the child's 18th birthday.
The right to request flexible working
Parents of children under the age of six (or 18 if disabled) have the right to ask their employer for a change in their working hours and their employer must seriously consider this request.
From April 2007 this right will be extended to carers of sick and disabled adults.
All of Usdaw's publications are available from the web site or from your rep or local Usdaw office.
For more information about Usdaw and our campaigns, please contact your union rep or your nearest Usdaw office. Telephone: 0845 6060640 (calls charged at local rate) or e-mail: parentsandcarers@usdaw.org.uk.
Helping you with childcare (Leaflet 345) was correct at date of publication May 2006
Download File:
Helping you with childcare [ pdf ]
If you do not have the software to download this attachment you can download it here.
This is a large document - which may take some time to display.
If you have problems viewing it, you can 'download' this file by 'right-clicking' the link, and saving the document to your desktop. Then, open the saved document in the normal manner.
[ Get a player/reader for this file here ]
Printer Friendly Page 
Email to a Friend
Home 
