Excerpts from the report:
The majority of lone parents in England use some form of childcare. However, lone parents are more likely than couple families to rely on informal childcare, particularly from grandparents. Nevertheless, many lone parents do wish to use more formal childcare, both for the benefits it provides to their children, and also to enable them to enter the workforce, to train or study, or to have a break from their childcare responsibilities.
Lone parents had unmet needs for childcare and identified a number of gaps in childcare services that act as barriers to take-up. In particular, lone parents found a lack of affordable school holiday provision that is available for the entire holiday period and a lack of appropriate care for older children. Many lone parents also felt that there was a lack of affordable places generally. In order for more lone parents to take up childcare, and enter the workforce, childcare needs to be more flexible and adaptable to the needs of the individual family, particularly in terms of the hours of availability. More 'wraparound' provision is also necessary, including the provision of care throughout the entire working day and at evening/night-time and weekends. They also identified a lack of childminders willing to take and collect children from school. Childcare provision in the family's home was also cited as an effective means of providing out of hours, emergency and ad-hoc care.