The Autonomous State of Childcare : Policy and the Policy Process in Britain

This title was first published in 2001. Public childcare provision in Britain is an issue that raises much passion and has been the source of much disappointment. Free childcare in Britain is limited. Public policy has been slow to change in terms of providing more childcare. Insufficient public childcare provision is a barrier to acheiving equal rights for women, especially within the employment sector. This book sets out to search for the factors crucial to constraining the development of childcare policy and public childcare provision. It looks at schemes that have been set up but that ultimately fail in allowing women to work by not providing the necessary childcare provision. The book looks at the issue of childcare provision, how the policy process works, the different types of childcare provision past and present, and implementation and operation of childcare schemes.