Call to give self-employed access to childcare vouchers The campaign, supported by the National Day Nurseries Association, StartUp Britain, Daycare Trust, and many other groups is calling for the government to provide an equal level of support to help families afford quality childcare by extending childcare vouchers to self-employed parents. However, with the costs of childcare rising rapidly in excess of inflation rates, many leading businesses and childcare organisations believe that more should be done to encourage entrepreneurship and provide mothers and fathers with the childcare they need to start up their own business. Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation and co-founder of StartUp Britain, said: "Of the 4.2 million self-employed people in the UK, nearly 1.4 million of them have a child under the age of 15. These parents face the same childcare pressures as all employed parents, but are unable to access the same support. Fiona Shields, Chair of the CVPA (Childcare Voucher Providers Association) said: "The expansion of the voucher scheme would mark a logical progression of childcare support and would ensure that no parent is discriminated against for choosing to be self-employed." Entrepreneurship among women is comparatively low. 26pc of self employed people are women, though female workers account for 46pc of Britain's economically active population. Many business and childcare organisations believe that the lack of childcare support is a major barrier to women starting up their own business.