Fife cheapest in the UK for childcare

Parents in Fife pay £5.88 on average across the four childcare services, more than 21 per cent lower than the national average hourly rate of £7.16.

That’s according to figures from the UKs biggest online networking platform for parents, childcare providers, tutors and schools. Childcare.co.uk has used its internal data to compare childcare costs in Fife and found that it is one of the cheapest places in the UK for childcare – for every pound parents in the UK spend on childcare, parents in Fife spend just 79p.

The most expensive type of childcare in Fife is nannying, which costs on average £8.53 per hour. This is followed by babysitting at £7.67; childminding at £4.30 and day nurseries at £3.01.

The London hourly average for childcare sits nearly 45 per cent higher than Fife at £8.45, meaning Fife parents pay on average £2.47 an hour less than parents in the English capital.

More than 1,058 people are actively looking for childcare in Fife, with more than 518 service providers searching for work, meaning demand is outstripping supply significantly.

Richard Conway, CEO and founder of Childcare.co.uk, said: “Prices for all types of commodities and services change based on location, and it’s no different for childcare.

“London is known to be more expensive than the rest of the country for most goods, but it’s interesting to see that places such as Fife are so much cheaper!

“We know that childcare is a worry for parents across the UK and it’s interesting to see such a big deficit between the number of childcare providers in the area and the number of parents in need of childcare.”

Parents in Fife can find out their exact childcare costs by putting their postcode into Childcare.co.uk’s online calculator: https://www.childcare.co.uk/costs