For almost four years, Jen Pacer gave up her job as a civil servant to be a stay-at-home mum and look after her three children. When her youngest started nursery, she planned to go back to work full-time and began looking into childcare options.
She started her search for her own Mary Poppins – a saintly au pair who could live-in and help with the school run – but found it was “almost impossible”. Instead, Jen has returned to work part time and relies on family, friends and expensive temporary childcare to help out.
Finding affordable and personal childcare
Other parents across Hackney have described similar difficulties in securing childcare that’s both affordable and personal, and many have given up altogether. The responsibility of caring for children has always fallen disproportionately on women. The lack of childcare options post-lockdown has meant that many mums are unable to return to work, or that they largely take on the burden of unpaid childcare.
“Childcare is always an issue and always has been but…it’s becoming more and more expensive and parents struggle” says Gemma Reid, a playworker at Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground, a charity play area in Stoke Newington.
In England, all 3 and 4-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours per week of free childcare regardless of how much their families earn. This includes nurseries, playgroups and childminders. Parents who both work more than 16 hours per week with a household income of less than £100,000 are entitled to 30 hours each week. For many parents, this is still not enough, so they have to make up the extra hours themselves, or pay for someone else to do it for them.
The burden of unpaid childcare labour
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the extent to which the burden of childcare labour falls on women, who on average spend more than 30 hours per week looking after children, according to a report published by FemDev, and the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy.
“Nursery prices are astronomical and the Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground (SWAPA) don’t do a great deal of under 5,” Reid explains. “Sometimes we get people telling us that their 4 year old is 6 because they’re so desperate for childcare. They need to work to feed their families but for some parents it is impossible to do both,” Reid explains.
For Jen and many other parents keen to return to their jobs, the 15 hours of childcare per week is not enough: “It’s not a model that is actually workable,” she says. “The help that you get for nurseries is nonsense…it is never enough.”
“If I needed a full time nanny…it wouldn’t be financially worthwhile for me to go to work. Our old nanny is really well qualified but her rate is now £17 or £18 per hour plus tax. Imagine you need a nanny for more than 8 hours a day – that’s more than I earn,” Jen says.
Alexia Sampsoni, a student and part-time nanny, says that she receives messages twice a week from parents asking for childcare.
“They’re desperate,” she says. “I used to struggle to find childminding jobs but now have to turn down so many families.”
Charities can only do so much
Charity play areas like SWAPA provide parents with a free and safe space where they can leave their children to play and eat, but they’re often underfunded.
“After school clubs and after school activities are great because they allow parents that need longer hours to get more affordable childcare, especially when they are linked to a charity,” says Joy Wibberley, a Foundation Stage Leader.
But typically, children aged anywhere between 4 and 11 attend after school clubs, making it difficult for staff to give specialised attention.
“There are children in reception mixed with children in year 6, which can be quite daunting for the younger children.
“Staff try to cater for all the children’s needs, but it’s difficult with low staff to children ratios,” she explains.
Negotiating childcare arrangements
Parents are having to rely more on informal arrangements to deal with their child care demands. Reid describes how parents in Stoke Newington often “negotiate” after school care with neighbours and classmates.
“[Hackney] is one of the few places in London where you do still have a strong sense of community. People know their neighbours, so they can say “can you take my child until 5,” Reid says.
For women who can’t rely on these networks, the responsibility for caring for children largely falls on them or expensive childcare.
“Childcare should be affordable for all families. Until it is, women will have to continue sacrificing their careers,” Wibberley says.
Elsewhere, Alanah Khosla chats to Hackney Women’s Football Club about empowering women through sport
