Britain is at risk of producing a new generation of latchkey kids because parents of older children are struggling to find suitable care for them, a report warns today.

{mosimage}It says just one childcare place is available for every 200 children aged 11 to 14, and argues that they are becoming the overlooked age group – unable to access the childminders used by younger children or the youth clubs enjoyed by their older teenage siblings.

Still Home Alone, produced by the charity 4Children, also warns that the problem will worsen next year under changes to the welfare rules.

Lone parents will need to seek work when their youngest child turns 11, five years earlier than under the current rules.

It argues that councils and youth services should work with schools to provide activities at the end of the day and over holidays, urging the government to back such schemes with start-up funds of around £20,000. It also calls on the government to offer long-term funding in deprived areas, where parents may be too poor to pay for after-school clubs.

According to the last census, there are about 4 million children aged between 11 and 14. But official estimates suggest there are only about 20,000 childcare places for this age group.

A charity for disadvantaged children that is supported by the Princess Royal and Lawrence Dallaglio, the former England rugby captain, has been accused of wasting money on “larks”.

Plans to relocate cancer care services an extra 13 miles away, affecting patients in Barnoldswick and Earby, have been put on hold temporarily.