By Alyssa Jaffer

Is Childcare in the UK Broken?

Childcare costs are pushing mothers out

The promise of expanded “free” childcare in the UK was meant to ease the pressure on working families. Instead, many mothers say the maths still doesn’t add up. As costs rival mortgages and flexibility remains fragile, the question is no longer whether parenting is expensive but whether the UK’s childcare system is fundamentally broken.

We’ve written before about why women can’t afford motherhood and in the short time since, it seems like costs have only gotten higher. The newly expanded childcare scheme, expanding government funded healthcare for working parents in England to offer 30 hours of free childcare for children as young as nine months, was meant to tackle the issue. But fertility rates are hitting an all time low, and with wages stagnating and prices for so much of life remaining on the rise, being a working parent is feeling increasingly challenging. So we’re coming right out and asking the question - is childcare in the UK broken?

A survey by the parenting advocacy charity, Pregnant The Screwed uncovered that a quarter of new mothers are returning to work earlier than expected because of the new childcare benefit, whilst another found that a quarter of parents will need to leave the workforce if childcare costs increase by only 10%.

The childcare issue remains a complex one; its flaws are systemically embedded and even well intentioned solutions like shared parental leave have proven imperfect and barely able to move the needle. Ultimately, it is parents - and most often, mothers - who are suffering.

Kathryn Jones* has two children aged 20 months and 8 weeks old.

“It’s cripplingly extortionate...our nursery fees will be the same as our mortgage.”

“Our 20 month old is at nursery five days a week, and we pay for extended hours in order to make it to pick up with the commute and train times. Usually we need to leave work early, so still have to log back on later. Once I go back to work, our youngest will also go to nursery on the same basis,” she said. Kathryn likes the nursery and as a forest school, it allows her son to spend the majority of his day outside which he loves, but the cost is extremely high. “It’s cripplingly extortionate, and we are in a fortunate financial position with the industries we work in. We don’t qualify for any support, so when our youngest starts, our nursery fees will be approximately 25% of our monthly net income – the same as our mortgage,” she said.

“When you factor in £50 a day return train tickets, parking, and the costs of owning a car – you need to be a high earner just to afford to go to work.”

And she’s not alone.

Rosie Davies-Smith, founder of a PR software company based in Kingsbridge, has two children aged 4 and 5, with no financial or family support. While her situations has changed, with her oldest starting school, it remains a very tight squeeze.

“We were paying around £2,000 a month for three days a week of nursery, which was essentially everything left after the mortgage,” she said.

“To manage, I had to take dividends from my business – a challenging balance while trying to grow the company. Now, we pay about £600 a term for before and after school clubs. I haven’t found childcare affordable at all and have had to sacrifice holidays and doing work on our home,” she said.

Rosie values the before and after school clubs, as they provide her with a longer working day and the flexibility to start earlier and finish later., but nothing about childcare is ever guaranteed.’

“Kids get ill, and meetings sometimes have to be cancelled, which is highly stressful when plans go off track. Summer holiday clubs have been particularly challenging, with a 60-mile roundtrip a day costing around £100 for both children,” Rosie explained.

Survey research by Coram Family and Childcare found that although for parents of children under 3, costs are less than last year in England, prices for this age group continue to rise in Scotland and Wales, and childcare costs for three- to four-year-olds across Great Britain are up by almost 5%.

“Childcare costs should be seen as infrastructure, and we are pushing out a captive workforce – usually women – where it isn’t financially logical for them to go back to work,” said Kathryn.

“These are people who could be generating more tax for the economy,” she added.

Indeed, the motherhood penalty also means that often, women who return to work after maternity leave never recover their earning power over the course of their careers.

“To manage, I had to take dividends from my business – a challenging balance while trying to grow the company.”

In more ways than one, the childcare conundrum is a systemic issue to solve, not one that will be fixed with an underfunded scheme or surface level solution. And it has a lot to do with the way carers are valued.

“I also wish that nursery workers were able to be paid better,” said Kathryn. “We want the best of the best to be looking after our babies, but as a career it doesn’t attract as many people as it’s not paid well or seen as a ‘worthy’ career… I disagree with this and think it’s the hardest job going!”

With the economy continuing to struggle, an extremely tough jobs market and birth rates falling to record lows in England and Wales, it’s clear that parents and hopeful parents need more support – and they need it now.

For mothers and families who are particularly struggling with childcare costs, the first step is to remember that you are not alone. In fact, finding support is the useful starting point. Look for a family hub in your local area, and find out more about communities like Pregnant Then Screwed, which have free advice lines for issues around maternity discrimination and signpost to towards other related information too.

While the financial strain remains a difficult, and often discriminatory issue for working parents, there is hope on the horizon. Organisations like Anna Whitehouse’s Flex Appeal and Pregnant then Screwed are advocating for positive change, and finally, the government and large organisations are finally beginning to listen.