Guest Post: “Collectively we spend billions of pounds a year on childcare, yet too many parents are getting a rotten deal for it.”

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Shadow Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson MP writes for Mumsnet about how a Labour Government would tackle the childcare crisis.

It’s that time of year again: children are back to school, and parents face a fresh set of challenges to juggle. Across the country, I often hear from parents who had expected the punishing cost of childcare and pressure that it brings to stop once their kids started school. Yet if you’re working, someone has to be looking after the kids in time for you to get there – and again when school closes in mid-afternoon.

Research by Mumsnet and Pregnant Then Screwed earlier this year found that for more than three-fifths of parents of young children the cost of childcare is now the same or more than their housing costs. Let that sink in. Paying more to balance parenting and working, than for your home. That goes up to almost three-quarters of single parents, and of parents who work full-time. This means families are facing crippling childcare costs on top of the increasing cost of living. And too many women are being priced out of working full-time: their ambition, skills, talent and drive, wasted, because they’re also parents. Almost half of mothers surveyed said that the cost of childcare has made them consider leaving their job. A devastating number are working fewer hours than they would like to, because of childcare costs.

It’s not just a financial and an economic disaster. It’s a huge social cost to our country. When women are bowing out of the workplace, they end up under-represented in too many sectors. A strangle on women making it to senior levels means fewer role models for the next generation. And the impact on family life is stark. When parents can’t afford to take their kids out for the day, have to think again about an ice-cream in the park or a ride at the fair, things aren’t right. When parents are struggling to fill the cupboards or have to think twice about putting the heating on, the system isn’t working. Collectively we spend billions of pounds a year on childcare, yet too many parents are getting a rotten deal for it.

Families with preschool children will know all too well the consequences of the government’s extraordinary and deliberate choice to underfund the 15 and 30 hours childcare entitlement. Local nurseries and childminders have no choice but to try to get that money somewhere else. Extra hours end up costing families far over the odds, so providers can cross-subsidise. When parents are having to pay extra for nappies, wipes and snacks, they’re picking up the tab for the government just not getting it.

Good quality affordable childcare is what’s right for both children and parents, but right now the system we have isn’t remotely fit for either. Labour wants families to have money in their pockets to spend on time together as they choose, and to have the choice to work the hours and jobs they want to do, to chase down that promotion, to harness their ambition, without facing crippling costs. And we need to be clear that childcare is an issue that stretches not just for children aged from two to four but from one to 11. We need to be thinking about supporting families right through childhood, from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school. When new parents have to work less than they’d like in those first two years, it’s not always easy to change as the children get older.

The Conservatives have made very clear what they think. Since they came to power in 2010 they have closed over a thousand children’s centres, which once provided support and childcare across England. They’ve made it very clear they don’t regard childcare as a priority. They change their leader, not their tune. But of course, the great thing about governments is that, come election time, you can change them.

And change things we would. Labour has set out very clearly what we’d be doing right now, in the wake of the pandemic. We’d have brought in free breakfast clubs and afterschool activities for every child, such as sport, drama, and book clubs, to boost time for children to play and socialise. We’d have increased the Early Years Pupil Premium more than four-fold, investing in our youngest children, and supporting childcare providers to help keep costs under control. We’d be ending the tax breaks that hand billions of pounds every year to private schools and invest in a National Excellence Programme for our schools, with more training and support for teachers and new heads, more and better careers guidance for every child, and mental health support in every school.

Right now, with costs for families soaring at the tills and on the bills, Labour would freeze energy bills for all domestic customers, saving families £1000 and ensuring they don't pay a penny more this winter.

So at the next election the choice will be clear. In twelve years in power, the Conservatives have decimated public services, priced families out of parenting, and made high quality childcare a crippling cost that is unaffordable for too many. It’s time for a fresh start which Labour is ready to deliver. Only Labour will build a Britain where parenting and working are not either/ors, but go hand in hand, so children can come first.

[rightsforunderfives]

Sadly the author appears ignorant about Early Years education. Childcare and EYE are not the same thing. I’m fairly sure my 13 year old son could do ‘childcare’. But he most certainly couldn’t do Early Years Education. Perhaps the narrative around ‘childcare’ is what is holding the UK back. Childcare is a service for parents. Early Years Education is for children. When we put the rights of children at the centre of our decisions, the solutions suddenly become miraculously clear. Montessori teachers, EY educators, EY teachers, forest school teachers, Steiner teachers. These pedagogical experts did NOT spend Years training to get treated like babysitters and called ‘childcare workers’. It’s frankly offensive to those professionals in the field of EYE. No wonder people are leaving in droves.