From Children & Young People Daily Bulletin:
The number of places at holiday clubs for children plummeted by 13 per cent in a year, a government study found.
At the same time, fees for holiday clubs rose from £1.70 an hour to £2.20 an hour on average.
Sessional daycare for children also plunged as demand grew for full-time childcare instead, according to the report Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey 2007.
The study, which surveyed more than 6,000 childcare workers to give a picture of childcare provision in England in 2007, also found just one per cent of the childcare and early years workforce was male.
However, eight per cent of staff in after-school clubs and 16 per cent of those in holiday clubs were male.
Other than holiday clubs and sessional providers, all other types of childcare provider have increased in number since 2001.
“In 2007 a quarter of full daycare providers said they had changed from offering sessional care and most of these said they did this because of parental demand for longer hours of childcare,” the report said.
