Just 34% of councils have sufficient childcare places to support full-time working parents, research has found.

According to a new report from the Policy Exchange think tank, the number has decreased by 14 percentage points since 2023.

The report, titled ‘A Matter of Choice’, reveals that only three quarters of local authorities have the right amount of childcare for children aged under two. It highlights that availability is the poorest for rural families, children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and families requiring atypical hours.

Furthermore, the report warns that provision ‘has not kept pace with policy ambition and is highly uneven across areas and age groups’, with the waiting time for some childcare providers often taking two years.

Citing Office for National Statistics (ONS) and charity analyses, the report found that there are ‘stark local gaps’ in childcare provision. This is due to council workforce shortages, unstable provider finances and underfunded ‘free’ entitlements meaning they cannot ensure an adequate number of places are delivered.

‘This means parents in many parts of England face a mix of waiting lists, restricted session times and a lack of flexible or SEND-inclusive provision, even as headline hours of entitlement expand on paper’, it explains.

As part of its recommendations, the report suggests increasing child benefit by £2,500 per child (0-2 year olds) annually, introducing a new £7,000 a year childcare voucher for 3-4 year olds, and ensuring ‘lighter-touch regulation to help the voucher go further’.

It also calls for an investment of £700m to support the expansion of Best Start in Life centres, as well as advocating for an end to the existing child support system. This would include the universal, working and disadvantaged components of free childcare, the childcare element of Universal Credit, tax-free childcare and student childcare grants.