Craig’s story

Craig was born in 1996 and lives with his mother, Karen, in a council house in a city in the South West of England. The inner-city area where the family lives has a large minority ethnic community, and is also an area of multiple deprivation with levels of unemployment and economic inactivity higher than the average in England.

Craig’s care and education from birth to seven years

Karen left school at 16 and worked full-time in a local café but gave up work to look after Craig. She was able to get financial support from the government, receiving a universal Child Benefit payment together with a means-tested Income Support payment that also allowed her to access Housing Benefit covering her council house rent and Council Tax. In total, her benefits provided her with 28% of the average income for households in England and Wales (before housing costs). When pregnant with Craig, she had been offered a government Social Fund loan to help with some of the costs associated with having a baby. As this loan would have to be repaid from her benefits, Karen declined the offer out of a fear of getting into debt.

Because she did not go out to work, Karen did not require outside childcare for Craig. But she did want to meet other parents and she wanted Craig to meet other young children. She decided to attend the local parent and toddlers group at the community centre for one session a week. There was a nominal fee of £2 a session (€2.86) to cover the costs of the room but, as the parents stayed with their children, they did not have to pay salaries for childcare staff.

Subsequently, Karen’s GP suggested that she contact the local Sure Start centre that had just opened up. (Sure Start is a programme aimed at children under four years old and their families living in disadvantaged areas: it is discussed further in Chapter Four.) The Sure Start centre was able to offer Craig, who was now three years old, two sessions a week in its playgroup, and Karen also made use of the centre’s parent groups to meet other mothers. These services were provided free of charge to Karen. About six months later, Craig got a place in the local primary school’s nursery class, also free, for the remaining three mornings a week.