More than a fifth of parents in Yorkshire say they have problems finding child care flexible enough to meet their needs.

This is slightly higher than the England average at 21% compared with 20% nationally.

Only one in seven parents in Yorkshire and Humber (14%) said they were able to find term-time child care which fitted in with working hours.

Nearly a fifth of parents (18%) in the region would like to see more after-school clubs, while 15% would like extra holiday clubs and 6% want more breakfast clubs.

Overall, 79% of families in England with children aged from birth to 14 had used some form of child care during their most recent term-time week, according to the Government’s Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents 2014/15.

Stock image of a child playing

Two in three families (66%) had used formal child care and early years provision and 40% had used informal child care. More than a quarter, 28%, had used both formal and informal child care. The majority of parents (64%) rated the overall quality of local child care provision as very or fairly good. This proportion has increased from 58% in 2012-13.

Nearly half, 46%, of parents felt the number of local child care places was ‘about right’. This proportion has risen from 42% in 2012/13. However, 28% reported that ‘not enough places’ were available in 2014-15 compared with 30% in 2012/13.

Just over half of parents (53%) said it was fairly or very easy to meet their child care costs, with 22% of families finding it fairly or very difficult to pay.