I have been running my own business now for 3 years and I am now
employing other mums on a flexible part-time basis. The main challenges for me
and my team is childcare, cost and availability.
A large number of my working mum friends rely heavily on family, mainly
Grandparents, for childcare. However for lots of working mums, like my-self,
they do not have that option. I have a supportive husband who would love to
help out more however his private sector employer can-not afford to give him flexibility
in his working hours, it’s hard-times in business.
So regular child-care is my only option and this is not only hard to
find it becomes more complicated when
children are at school.
I have a six year old in Year 2 at school and a three year old in school
nursery. Childcare is a mixture of before and afterschool clubs for both, child-minders
on the days the clubs are full, nurseries and holiday clubs in the school holidays,
it’s a logistical nightmare hard to organise and expensive.
Not enough of any type of childcare
provision so you end up juggling your kids around them all which takes its toll
on both children and parents. I have been known to try and drop my kids off at
the wrong place on the wrong day, I don’t know whether I am coming or going!
The cost is astronomical and for many
part-time working women simply not economically viable to return to work. My
child care costs average between £6000 and £8000 per year. After tax most
part-time working women on the average wage would be paying to go to work!
Becoming a child-minder is too
complicated, a friend of mine registered and started the process and shared what
she had to do with me. I was horrified at the amount of paperwork, policies and
procedures she had to prepare and ensure parents completed. In my experience most child-minders are
looking after children of adults they know. Unlike nurseries there is a clear relationship
between the parents and child-minder surely the parents are best placed to
assess the person not Ofted!
So it seems simple to me…….There is a demand for childcare by women like
me and my team who want to work so we need to sort out the supply.
Step 1. Make it easier for
women to become child-minders, lots of mums are looking to earn an income
whilst at home with their own children cut the paperwork and inspections. We
now have more women working.
Step 2. We now have increased
supply which creates competition and reduces the price making it more
affordable for more people. A wider income range can afford childcare. We now
have more women working.
Step 3. We now have stable
supply and demand enabling working mums to consider setting-up their own
businesses. We now employ more and more people.
For 5 years now I have worked 3 days a week, trying to strike that magic
balance workings mums strive for. Mum, wife and career woman. It’s hard work,
it feels like I am doing two full time jobs, but I love it. I feel positive
about life, I feel good about myself, I am proud of what I am achieving and my
kids are very happy and confident. I want other women to achieve the same
self-confidence, independence and security for themselves and their own
families. I believe the Government has a role to play.
Here is a section of an article which gives me hope that the government
will make the changes necessary to see the full article click
here
Christian Guy, Managing Director of the CSJ, said: “Finding suitable and
affordable childcare in the UK is difficult and often hinders some of the
poorest parents from working. We need to give people the tools to escape
poverty – reforming childcare must be a political priority.
“Throwing more money at ballooning subsidies is unlikely to be the best
use of public funds, what we need a sensible and thoughtful policy change.
“Helping parents to avoid the cost of childcare altogether – for
example, by fostering informal childcare networks, encouraging childminding
circles and helping parents to work during school hours – would be hugely
beneficial.
“Another challenge facing ministers is to drive down costs so that more
parents are better off if they take a job.”
The CSJ calls for a pruning of the red tape covering the provision of
childcare. Regulations limiting the number of children a registered childminder
can care for should be eased and schools should be given incentives to provide
additional supervision of children before and after class, it says.
The CSJ report concludes: "Work is the principal route out of
poverty. But extortionate childcare costs are a major barrier in getting people
into work and underline why this Government’s welfare reform is so essential.
The next phase in this journey must be a more detailed review of high childcare
costs.”
The report adds: "Supply side reforms are now crucial to reduce the
cost of childcare for both parents and taxpayers particularly urgent in a time
of such public and private debt.
"Such reforms would ensure that it is economically worthwhile for
more parents entering employment on the national minimum wage to combine work
with paying for childcare.
"The Government needs to support parents to achieve the fragile
balance of working and raising their child, while controlling the costs for
both parents and taxpayers.
"Models of childcare such as extended schools and childminding
circles should be encouraged in order to increase the availability and
flexibility of childcare provision, without surrendering on quality and
outcomes."
Key recommendations of the report include:
- The affordable childcare commission should aim to lower childcare
costs to below the breakeven cost of childcare in order to ensure that work
always pays for parents that have to combine work with formal childcare.
- The Government should ask childcare providers for core and consistent
information on all forms of provision, including costs, pricing and occupancy
in order to better understand demand and gaps in provision in local areas.
- The Government should consider a modest relaxation of childcare ratios
during peak hours. This would increase the flexibility of provision for parents
and increase incomes for providers without putting children at significantly
greater risk.
- Schools should be encouraged and incentivised to offer regular
childcare and after-school activities on the basis that extended schools offer
low-cost options for childcare while also improving educational outcomes for
the children who attend.
- Schools should be encouraged and incentivised to provide extended
service by communicating the benefits of improved outcomes for the children who
attend; and allowing extended schools access to childcare subsidy where their
provision supports parents into employment.
- National and local governments must shorten the process of becoming a
childminder to encourage parents to do so.
- The Government should encourage childminding circles in order to raise
demand and lower costs for out-of-hours care (before 8 am, after 6 pm)
organised in conjunction with the breakfast or afterschool club, or with
Jobcentre Plus.
- Jobcentre Plus should discuss the option of becoming a child-minder
with parents on income support as they approach the point at which their
youngest child reaches five years old.
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