Choosing Childcare in Northern Ireland

This report explores over 1,000 local parents’ experiences of looking for childcare for the first time.

More often than not an exploratory look at childcare in Northern Ireland is taken from an objective and mechanical viewpoint, exploring, for example, the number of places, quality measures defined by official standards or the location of childcare settings.

This report takes the service user’s view; how do parents go about finding childcare? What factors are most important to them when sourcing a setting? It seeks to understand the parent’s experience of looking for childcare for the first time and demonstrates what policy makers, organisations and childcare providers can learn from this insight.

To help support first time parents Employers for Childcare has also produced the Choosing Childcare in Northern Ireland First Time Parent’s Guide.