WIREDGOV

Children from 1600 lower income London families will benefit from the London Development Agency’s new childcare initiatives which are being rolled out across eight London boroughs from today.

Details of the Childcare Affordability Programme were announced yesterday at the European Cities Against Child Poverty Conference, following an earlier Mayoral announcement in August.  The programme will see up to £1 million invested in each of the eight participating boroughs.

Three out of five children living in poverty in the capital are living in households where no one is in work.  The Childcare Affordability Programme is linked to a national commitment to eradicate child poverty in the UK by 2020.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London said: 

"Childcare is expensive and for many families the high cost of London living is also a real struggle. It makes absolutely no economic sense to let the skills and enthusiasm of these parents go to waste simply because they can’t find affordable, quality childcare. This programme will provide a real lifeline for thousands of parents who want to go out to work and currently feel they can't.

"Low-cost, flexible childcare will not only bring benefits to individual families but to London as a whole, and at a key time for the economy. I am proud to say that Londoners are already, on average, 30 per cent more productive than the rest of the UK. This initiative is a key part of my Economic Recovery Action Plan and a brilliant example of how we are working to help Londoners make a better life for themselves and their families."

Denise Burke, Head of Youth and Childcare at the LDA said:

"This new programme will make childcare more affordable for those families that are most in need by providing the support unemployed parents need to get into jobs.

"Londoners pay, on average, 25 per cent more for childcare than parents living elsewhere in England. For someone on a low income this can be a huge barrier to finding a job, particularly for mothers wanting to return to or enter into employment." 

The Childcare Affordability Programme provides support for low-income families to access good quality, affordable childcare through joint investment with government in the Childcare Affordability Programme.

The two LDA funded pilots will target out-of-work lone parents, couples where both partners are out-of-work and single earner couples, all of whom have a household income of less than £20,000 in the previous 12 months.

"The two different pilots will test two approaches to supporting people into sustainable employment - these are a supported offer and a subsidised offer. Both pilots will be implemented by the participating boroughs. We have designed the pilots to ensure they target the hard to reach parents who are not helped by other mainstream programmes," said Mrs Burke.

The subsidised offer will contribute to the cost of flexible, quality childcare places for families living in the following five boroughs:

•           Brent

•           Ealing

•           Hackney

•           Southwark

•           Westminster

The support offer will provide parents with professional, individual guidance about training, employment and finding childcare in the following three boroughs:

•           Barking & Dagenham

•           Islington

•           Harrow (subject to Cabinet approval)

The Childcare Affordability Programme will run for two years from December 2009 to December 2011 and will be managed by the London Development Agency. For information on how the pilots are being rolled out, contact the participating boroughs.