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Notices and Press Releases

Daycare Trust : Findings on childcare and BME families released

The findings of the Daycare Trust's Ensuring Equality project, sponsored by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation were launched on Wednesday May 21st.

Early years education helps level the playing field for children in poverty, and high-quality childcare helps poor parents to work and earn money.

So, with around two-thirds of black and minority ethnic (BME) families living below the poverty line, why does childcare in the UK still wear a largely white, middle-class face? And why are so many families from minority communities not taking up childcare places?

The Ensuring Equality project talked to parents and childcare workers across England to explore attitudes to early childhood education and care among ethnic communities, and levels of ethnic diversity in childcare settings.

The research shows that there is a huge range of needs, experiences and cultural values among BME families, allowing no "one size fits all" analysis of their problems.

A recent strand of the project interviewed childcare workers from various ethnic backgrounds at children's centres across England on how to engage BME families. The research highlighted the many ways in which children's centres in particular worked with BME families to engage with and celebrate the wide range of cultures and ethnicities in the UK.

The final phase of the research is captured in a report called Local approaches to ensuring childcare for BME families, examining how local authorities monitor ethnic diversity in childcare and how this monitoring is being used to encourage take up of services by BME communities. The report highlights how, although the level of monitoring of ethnic monitoring in childcare varies considerably between local authorities, it appears to be improving, partly due to the recent Childcare Sufficiency Assessment exercise.

Report author Jonathan Rallings said

"We found a mixed picture out there currently, with local authorities approaching monitoring of ethnicity in childcare from different starting points with different methods. However, our findings suggest that monitoring is a priority area for many authorities now because it underpins successful engagement with all communities, helping raise awareness of services available and building take-up. With the increased migration both within and from outside the UK this is an issue that is increasingly important in all areas of the country."

Additionally the report also emphasises the importance of obtaining qualitative data from BME communities about their perceptions and experiences of childcare, and recommends that priority is given to collecting data that reflects the needs of staff conducting outreach and take up activity.

More details about the research and links to download copies of the summary and full report are available on Daycare Trust's website Research Projects page in the Ensuring Equality Project section.