Creating Child Daycare Policy in Local Authorities

Collection of qualitative interviews with councillors and officers, exploring child daycare policy by local authorities. The research focused on 6 in depth case studies: the London Boroughs of Barnet and Kensington and Chelsea, Leeds, Manchester, North Tyneside and Oxfordshire. These were selected, partly in the light of information generated by quantitative indicators, to include the four main types of authority, relatively generous and low providing councils, and different patterns of party control.

This project sought to explain variations in daycare policy but also examine the nature of the local policy process and the impact of national policy on local childcare developments. To do so it combined two research methods. It provides a statistical analysis across local authorities and over a 20-year timespan which aimed to correlate differences in childcare provision with other likely relevant variables, such as party control and socio-economic character, and to trace changes over time. This is complemented by a qualitative investigation, based primarily on documentary evidence and interviews, in a number of selected authorities, and designed to examine the policy process in greater detail and analyse the role of factors less susceptible to quantification.<p>Child daycare is a crucial issue for gender equality and of great relevance to social inequality and juvenile crime, but has been relatively neglected by feminists and social scientists, especially political scientists. Public childcare provision in Britain has been meagre and national policy weak and fragmented. Direct responsibility for childcare services has devolved to local authorities whose level and patterns of provision vary remarkably. This project seeks first and foremost to explain these variations but also examines the nature of the local policy process and the impact of national policy on local childcare developments. To do so it combines two research methods. It provides a statistical analysis across local authorities and over a 20-year timespan which aims to correlate differences in childcare provision with other likely relevant variables, such as party control and socio-economic character, and to trace changes over time. This is complemented by a qualitative investigation, based primarily on documentary evidence and interviews, in a number of selected authorities, and designed to examine the policy process in greater detail and analyse the role of factors less susceptible to quantification.</p>