Serving personnel and their families have been contacting AFF to voice their concerns about the difference in funded childcare hours across the UK and overseas. As a response to this, AFF launched a childcare survey in November 2024. We received more than 200 responses, which has given us a snapshot of the experience of early years childcare across the four nations of the UK, and overseas.
The survey showed that key concerns were availability and cost of childcare, and families were keen to tell us that limitations on available childcare hours meant juggling a career and family life was extremely challenging.
In many cases, families told us that availability of suitable childcare affected their career decisions and which postings to choose. Some respondents even found the stress of trying to find suitable childcare was incompatible with army life and told us they were choosing to leave.
One respondent said: “I can’t necessarily do all the courses or deployments that I would like to benefit my career due to childcare commitments. I can’t stay behind and work late and often feel it’s unfair to those who have to stay to get the work done.”
AFF will be sharing detailed findings with families, the army and the MOD.