Hours of childcare used

During term time, almost half (49%) of households that used some form of childcare used between 21 and 30 hours per week. This proportion has increased from 23% in 2018, and is likely due to the increase in the number of available hours of funded ELC from 600 hours to 1,140 hours in 2021. A further 19% of households used more than 30 hours per week, and 19% used between 11 and 20 hours per week (Table 7). Households in the 60% least deprived areas were more likely to use more than 30 hours of childcare per week than those in the 40% most deprived areas (23% and 10% respectively) (Table 9). Due to small numbers of responses in some groups, SIMD quintiles have been combined for reporting purposes.

During the school holidays, 29% of households used no or less than one hour of childcare per week, a decrease from 40% in 2018. This is likely to be due to the increased flexibility of funded ELC hours since the expansion of funded ELC hours in 2021. A similar proportion (27%) used 21 to 30 hours per week, an increase from 17% in 2018. 15% of households used 11 to 20 hours per week and the same proportion used more than 30 hours per week. (Table 11)