AQW 27467/22-27

Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 20/05/2025
Answered On Date: 04/06/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail why informal childcare has not been separated from paid formal childcare in NISRA childcare survey tables, for example in the 'Average monthly payment for childcare by hours used' table, which were produced in conjunction with his Department.

Answer:

The NISRA childcare survey was designed to provide a representative overview of childcare usage and costs as experienced by households in Northern Ireland. The focus was on capturing the overall financial impact on families, rather than isolating costs by provider type. For this reason, some of the survey tables produced independently by NISRA as official statistics, such as ‘Average monthly payment for childcare by hours used', combine both formal and informal childcare to reflect the full range of arrangements being used by families.

In relation to the request for a median daily rate, supplementary data has been published by NISRA on the Department of Education website: https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/publications/northern-ireland-childcare-survey-results. This includes the median cost paid by parents for formal childcare, broken down by provider type.