Childcare, work and health
Men are more likely to be in paid work then women. The employment gender gap is largest between the ages of 35-49. Over 50% of women aged 25- 49 compared to just 12% of men are economically inactive due to looking after their family and home. 71% of part time workers are women.
Affordable childcare increases women’s labour market participation. Countries with more free hours or universal affordable childcare policies have higher women’s labour market participation compared to the UK. Affordable and accessible childcare is essential to remedy the gender pay gap, which is largely attributable to motherhood - where women’s earnings plateau at the point of pregnancy, and never recover.
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) refers to education and childcare provided in regulated settings from birth until primary school. As well as being beneficial to women’s labour market participation, high quality ECEC can help level the playing field when it comes to the attainment gap for children from families lower down the socioeconomic ladder.
The barriers to high quality ECEC
Cost- compared to other OECD countries, the UK has the highest cost of childcare where measured as a percentage of women’s full time medium earnings, and costs are proportionally higher for families with lower household incomes
Availability- only 50% of local authorities have enough childcare for children under two, and only 66% have enough to cover those 3 and 4 year olds entitled to 30h free per week
Three entitlements currently funded by the UK Department for Education
Universal entitlement (15h per week for all 3 and 4 year olds)
Disadvantaged entitlement (15h per week for certain 2 year olds, such as ‘Looked After’ children)
Extended entitlement (an additional 15h per week for 3 and 4 year olds of eligible working parents)
Changes to the entitlements
Currently, working parents of 2 year olds can apply for 15h per week, with funding coming on stream in April 2024
From September 2024, 15h per week will be extended to all children from 9 months
From September 2025, 30h per week will be available to children under the age of 5 of eligible working parents
Recruitment and retention in the ECEC workforce will likely limit role out of the expanded entitlements
More than 90% of local authorities report challenges in finding qualified staff for ECEC settings
57% of nursery staff are considering leaving in the next 12 months
An estimated additional 100 000 more staff could be needed by 2025 to maintain existing provision and provide the expanded entitlement
Just 17% of settings will be able to increase ECEC places on offer
Lara’s take
Everything is a trade off. Thinking about how best to invest your time as a parent makes it is challenging to decide how much childcare to outsource REGARDLESS of the logistical barriers. But high costs and poor availability of childcare sway the incentives away from return to work. The way the parenthood career impact differs between women and men is striking and surely stems from the biology- given the role of women in pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period. And by no means is this a negative difference- there are huge privileges associated with those biological functions. However, societal infrastructure has a role to play in levelling the playing field or at least allowing parents more of a choice in how to navigate the balancing act. Childcare infrastructure is one aspect, we are really behind on this in the UK and have a lot to learn from other countries. And although policy changes on childcare are in the pipeline, evidence suggests that implementation will fall short of promises.