Parents could be faced with a childcare shortage this summer, according to figures that reveal there are 10,000 fewer registered childminders than six years ago, with the numbers still rapidly declining.
At the very least, one in seven childminders has left the job since 2003, and the most dramatic reductions have come in the last year with the government’s introduction of its controversial “toddlers’ curriculum”.
The figures, released in parliament to the Liberal Democrats, reveal a six-year decline in the number of carers looking after under-eights, with the level dropping from 70,000 in 2003 to 60,900 in March this year. In the last 12 months there has been a more dramatic decline, with a loss of 4,000 childminders.
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