Our work is important to us, but so is our family. According to the Labour Force Survey Trends in Female Employment nearly 53% of working women have children under five; the percentage rises to almost three quarters once children start school. Childcare is a fact of life, but how can you ensure that it doesn't swamp everything else?

Do it yourself…

Looking after your children while also working needs good time management and probably also a flexible employer. You can:

• rearrange your working hours around the school day;
• have the school holidays as unpaid leave;
• job share;
• work more hours some days to make up for time off in others;
• take a voluntary reduction in hours for a fixed period of time, e.g. a year.

As long as you have worked for them for more than six months, employers are obliged by law to consider all requests for flexible working. The recent law applies to working mothers and fathers with children under six or disabled children under eighteen. A survey by the Equal Opportunities Commission found that 18% of employees assume that their employer would not respond well to such a request, but many organisations say that they benefit from flexible working by having better motivated staff.

Whatever your working hours, you are entitled to take emergency time off if your usual childcare arrangements have failed, for example if your childminder is sick. Most employers class such absences as unpaid leave, but a few give paid leave for family emergencies.

Find somebody else

There are basically two different types of carer and two different types of childcare. Carers can be registered/approved or unregistered; children can be looked after in your own home or elsewhere.

To be registered, organisations offering childcare have to meet national standards and be checked by the police. Such childcare includes childminders, nurseries and out-of-school clubs for children under eight. A carer looking after children within their own home or children who are older than eight can be approved rather than registered. Such carers must have a childcare qualification, a first aid qualification and be checked by the police. Nannies do not usually have official registration but many are approved.

In your home

Most people thinking of childcare within their own home think of a nanny. There is no formal regulation for nannies, although they are often highly experienced and may be approved under the Childcare Approval Scheme. Often, although not always, they live in and can cost anything from £150-425 per week plus tax and national insurance. Nannies are most cost effective if you have more than one child, or if you share a nanny with other families. If you do so you may need to check your insurance if other people's children are looked after in your home. If a nanny looks after children younger than eight from more than two families they must register as a childminder.

Babysitters, au pairs and ad hoc carers are not usually trained in childcare – nursery nurse students are an exception – and can be something of a lottery when it comes to suitability.

Elsewhere

Nurseries are often run like a school and have their own designated premises. They employ staff and organise activities and easy lessons for the children. The Daycare Trust 2005 Childcare Costs Survey states that the typical cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two is £141 per week. In London the cost rises to £197 per week; in Scotland and Wales it's around £120 per week.

Childminders frequently work in their own homes. Their hours are much more flexible than those of a nursery and they will often pick children up from school or look after older siblings. Costs are usually around £126 per week.

More and more schools recognise the problems of childcare for working parents and many offer after-school clubs, breakfast clubs and holiday activities. School clubs cost around £45 for 15 hours per week while summer play schemes are around £75 per week. In June, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly announced her proposed Extended Schools Prospectus which encourages schools – but does not oblige them – to be open longer to look after children with working parents. The prospectus included local authority funding allocations for the development of extended schools.

Paying for childcare

Under a "salary sacrifice" scheme employers can pay their staff partly in childcare vouchers; such schemes are not compulsory, but there are tax advantages for both employer and employee. Many carers and childcare organisations accept vouchers in lieu of cash payment for childcare costs. If the childcare is registered/approved you do not pay income tax or national insurance on vouchers to the value of up to £50 per week. However vouchers can lower what is considered to be your average salary which in turn makes a difference to maternity pay and pensions. They can also affect the tax credit award.

If you pay someone to look after your child, then, providing that the carer is registered or approved, you can claim child tax credit. The amount of credit you get depends on your annual income, the number of hours you work, how many children you have and their ages. Whatever you receive in tax credit is paid direct to the carer. At the moment the maximum childcare tax credit per week is £122.50 for one child or £210 for two or more children. You can claim until 1 September following your child's fifteenth birthday; longer if you receive disability living allowance for the child.

If you pay a member of your family to look after your child then you cannot claim the costs back through child tax credit unless they also look after other children to whom they're not related; under no circumstances can you claim for a relative providing care in your child's home.

Childcare is important – no one would deny that – and it can also be complicated. But don't despair – there is help available if you're trying to juggle the importunities of your boss and a three-year old!