Daycare Trust, working with the Social Market Foundation and the Institute of Fiscal Studies, will investigate and establish the cost of providing good quality early years education for children in England and Wales, and how much of this parents can afford to pay. Four briefing papers will be produced:

• defining what is meant by quality early years childcare;
• establishing the cost of driving up the quality of childcare to an acceptable standard,
• setting out the charges being paid by families for childcare for children up to the age of 14, and
• suggesting how costs to parents can be best subsidised.

A final report will suggest alternatives models for high quality universal education and care by 2020, and make recommendations as to how this could be funded.

Researchers from the IFS are contributing to the final part of this project.