USE OF CHILD CARE

In June 2014, of the 3.8 million children aged 0-12 years, 48% (1.8 million) usually attended some type of child care compared with 52% in 2011. Nearly one quarter (919,400) usually attended formal care and 1.3 million usually attended informal child care. Both of these figures include the 327,800 children who usually attended both formal and informal child care. (Table 1)


USUAL FORMAL AND INFORMAL CHILD CARE

Around one fifth of all children (22%) were usually cared for by their grandparents, while 14% usually attended long day care, and 7.8% attended before and after school care. Family day care was usually attended by 2.5%. (Table 1)

Patterns of formal and informal care use varied by age (Graph 1). Under the age of 2 years, 22% of children usually attended formal child care, while 32% usually attended informal child care. The highest level of overall care attendance was among 2 and 3 year olds, of whom 71% usually attended care. This is comprised of 54% who usually attended formal child care and 36% informal child care. For school aged children (those aged 5 years and over), 14% usually attended formal child care and 32% informal child care. (Table 1 and Graph 1)

COUPLE AND ONE PARENT FAMILIES

The proportion of children aged 0-12 years who usually attended any form of child care was higher in one parent families (57%) than in couple families (46%). The proportion of children attending formal child care was similar in both family types (24% in couple families, 23% in one parent families). In couple families, 30% of children attended informal child care, compared with 44% of children in one parent families. For children in both family types, grandparents were identified as the most common source of informal child care (22% in couple families, 23% in one parent families). (Table 3)