Charity criticises plans to cut childcare support

CHILDREN in the UK have lower wellbeing than their counterparts in Slovenia, Estonia and Greece, charity Save the Children revealed yesterday.

The charity ranked the UK at 23rd out of 43 "more developed" countries for wellbeing of children in its annual State of the World's Mothers report, and described the result as a "national embarrassment".

The UK fared better in the rankings for the wellbeing of its mothers, in 13th, and women, in 10th position.

Children's wellbeing in developed countries was ranked according to three main factors - pre-primary enrolment, secondary school enrolment and under-five mortality rate.

The charity said it was "particularly concerned" about the proportion of children in the UK enrolled in pre-primary education, which it said stood at 81 per cent compared to 100 per cent in countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Justin Forsyth, Save the Children's chief executive, said: "We know that pre-school nursery or playgroup access helps all children but especially the poorest. It is a national embarrassment that the UK lags so far behind other countries of a similar size and wealth."

Mr Forsyth criticised government plans to cut support for childcare costs, which he said would hurt the poorest children even further.

He said: "By cutting childcare support, the government is making it harder for low-income parents to return to work but just as important, more of our poorest children are likely to miss out on pre-school education, a key to later educational achievement."