A recent study has warned that UK children are at risk of neglect because social workers, teachers and the police feel “powerless” to intervene in child neglect cases.

The Action for Children’s first annual report on neglect claims that children are being trapped in the safety net designed to protect them.

Based on focus groups, existing research, and the polling of 2,174 professionals, the Review of Child Neglect 2011 suggests that intervention is only permitted in the more extreme cases of child neglect.

Half of the primary school staff surveyed claimed that the threshold for reporting suspicions of abuse should be lower, with some teachers reportedly suffering from “sleepless nights” worrying about children in their care.

As a relocating parent, you may already be worried about the disruption your move will cause to your children’s education and social lives. If you plan to work when you relocate, your anxiety may be even greater.

Good news! Researchers from Columbia University have found that children whose mothers return to work full time within a year of giving birth do not suffer developmentally.

The results of this year’s Holiday Childcare Costs survey by national childcare charity Daycare Trust will be of concern to many relocating families, particularly those in which both parents work. They show a yawning gap in childcare provision, with only 20% of local-authority Family Information Services able to state that they have sufficient holiday childcare in place to meet parental need – down from a third last year. 63%, rising to 88% in the South East, reported that parents had complained of a lack of childcare in their area.

Getting the right care for their children is just one of the many potential headaches faced by relocating parents. We look at the options, and suggest some of the things to consider when deciding which of them is best for your child.

The good news is that there's a range of options to choose from, whether you're looking for full-time or part-time childcare. The bad news is that the degree of choice can seem bewildering, and there will almost certainly be hot competition for places with the best providers.

Full daycare options include childminders and nursery providers. The latter include private day nurseries, or nursery schools and nursery classes attached to local-authority schools. Part-time provision includes crèches, pre-school playgroups, toddler groups and out-of-school, or holiday, playschemes. 

Fiona Leney advises on the ground rules for ensuring pre-school children get the best possible start to their education.

When it comes to pre-school child care, there is assistance out there, in terms of both helping employees meet the cost and find the care. The key is to consider the type of help the employee needs, the budget involved and the age of the pre-schooler. The first thing is help with funding, and, with a little-known government scheme, it’s possible for employees to pay for childcare from pre-tax income, using vouchers they buy through salary sacrifice.

Childcare vouchers can save parents a lot of money – a basic rate tax payer using the full allocation of childcare vouchers can save £75 per month, and the savings for a higher-rate tax payer are correspondingly greater. The hitch is that employers have to know about, and be willing to buy into, the scheme. Childcare vouchers can actually benefit employers, not only in terms of employee goodwill, but financially, as they don’t pay national insurance on the vouchers.

Relocatees often face life in a completely unfamiliar town, region or country, and those with children may find the lack of previous networks of friends and family a particularly daunting prospect. Offering practical ideas and systems of childcare to people with families could be of great comfort and value, and be the defining point of a successful relocation.

Almost 40% of the UK workforce are parents, and many struggle with juggling responsibilities to families with obligations at work. A flexible, family-friendly workplace, coupled with support for childcare costs, is a two-pronged solution to this problem.

MI6 is one high profile employer that now uses flexible working and childcare vouchers to attract a new generation of James (and Jane) Bonds.

Employers who offer practical support when it comes to helping their staff select and meet the cost of early-years education will go a long way towards winning employee hearts and minds, as Anna Lambert reports

Choosing pre-school childcare will always seem a daunting experience. After all, what’s being anticipated is probably the first experience of long-term separation for children and their parents. Whether parents are looking for full day-care because they’re at work, or nursery for just a couple of hours a couple of sessions a week to help their child socialise, it’s key to the practical and emotional well-being of all concerned that appropriate choices are made. The additional pressures faced by relocating parents – namely the need to ensure that their children settle in quickly to the new environment, and the fact that possible pre-existing family childcare support in the form of, say, grandparents, may have been left behind with the move – mean they will require additional, specialised support.