CEY1480

Written evidence submitted by UNISON

Introduction

1. UNISON is the UK's largest public service trade union with 1.3 million members, 1 million of them women. Our members are people working in the public services, and for private contractors providing public services including in the essential utilities. They include frontline staff and managers working full or part time in local authorities, the NHS, the police service, colleges and schools, the electricity, gas and water industries, transport and the voluntary sector. Many of them are part time and work in traditionally low paid sectors like care, catering, security and cleaning. UNISON is the largest union in early years and nurseries, representing over 50,000 members across the UK.

2. As the UK’s largest trade union representing predominantly women workers, UNISON is uniquely well placed to outline the factors that affect the ability of women to participate in full-time work including the availability of affordable and flexible childcare.

3. As the main representative organisation for early years and nursery workers, UNISON gathers information about the recruitment and retention, morale and motivation of staff and has insight into the current workforce challenges facing the sector.

4. Our evidence focuses on the Inquiry questions about how support for childcare impacts upon parents/carers, the current workforce issues for the early years and nursery sector, and the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic may have worsened existing workforce challenges.

Childcare and participation in the Labour market

5. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UK has the most expensive childcare and early years education in the developed world[1]. The Centre for Progressive Policy reports[2] that there are 1.7 million women in the UK who are prevented from taking on more hours of paid work due to childcare issues. Analysis of government data from 2018 by Save the Children[3] found that there were 870,000 women who wanted to work but could not, due to childcare costs and availability.

6. The pandemic exposed deep-rooted inequalities in society, particularly for women. Covid highlighted the extent to which women still take on the majority of caring responsibilities at home and have to balance these with their work responsibilities. It also exacerbated existing disadvantage and the intersectional nature of disadvantage. If you were a woman and Black you suffered a double impact and if you were also disabled, triple jeopardy. Class was and is still an issue. Low paid women were particularly affected - only one in ten low paid jobs can be done from home.

7. At home, women took on three times more caring responsibilities than men.  According to the TUC[4] One in six women – mainly those on the lowest pay – had to reduce their hours at work as a direct result of school and childcare closures. Some were forced to give up their job.

8. At the height of the pandemic, in February 2021, UNISON carried out a survey[5] to look at the emotional, physical and financial impact of Covid on women in critical public services jobs who were keeping the country running.

9. In just a week we received responses from nearly 47,000 women including teaching assistants, nurses, care workers, nursery workers, cleaners and council workers; the majority 57% were still working in their usual workplace. Nearly 1000 of them provided comments about how Covid had impacted on their personal lives as well as at work.

10. Nearly two thirds were not sleeping well, more than half were not taking regular breaks and a significant number said they felt stressed most of the time.

11. The impact of the pandemic on children was a source of anxiety for many. Of the women who were parents, 61% were worried about the mental health of their children and 45% were concerned about how their education was being affected.

12. Now, parents face the additional stress of the cost-of-living crisis. The exponential increase in the cost of living is affecting everyone, but it is UNISON’s experience that more often than not, it is women who cannot make their household budgets add up and women who have to make the choice between skipping meals or buying their children’s school uniforms. It is also women who end up having to reduce their hours or leave their jobs because childcare is so expensive.

13. It is therefore not surprising that in 2021, the overall gender pay gap increased from just over 14% in 2019 to a median of just over 15%.

14. Until society recognises that women still take on the majority of caring responsibilities at home and have to balance these with their work responsibilities, the pay gap will remain stubbornly wide.

15. UNISON believes that the government’s failure to address childcare is part of the problem.

16. According to analysis by Business in the Community (BITC), the Prince’s Responsible Business Network, published in October 2022[6], full-time nursery provision for children under the age of two costs almost two-thirds of a parent’s weekly take-home pay in England. Childcare costs on top of rising household bills are putting working parents, but particularly women, in a very difficult position.

Workforce challenges

17. UNISON’s research[7] shows that many public service workers are having to take second or third jobs to pay for childcare. Some are leaving work altogether because they cannot afford nursery fees. For workers who are parents, many cannot go to work without paying for childcare – whether it’s nursery for young children or afterschool care for older ones. This is yet another cost of working that is increasing, and which is forcing many workers, disproportionately women, to leave the workplace, cut back on essentials or take on extra shifts.

18. Figures from the ONS[8] show that the number of women not working to look after their family has risen by 5% in the past year, the first sustained increase in at least 30 years.

19. UNISON believes that until policy makers recognise that women still take on the majority of caring responsibilities at home and have to balance these with their work responsibilities, women will continue to bear the brunt of social, epidemiological and economic shocks, and that the government’s failure to address childcare is part of the problem.

20. As well as fixing the broken childcare market, with proper funding and universal access to ensure the flexibility that working parents and employers need, rights to flexible working, better parental and carer’s leave, and improvements in maternity pay and rights at work for pregnant workers and new mothers are also critical.

21. Valuing the jobs that women do is also important. Care workers, teaching assistants, cleaners, nurses and also early years and nursery workers are predominantly women. Inadequate pay is an important factor in the workforce challenges currently faced by the early years and nursery sector.

22. Early years staff have endured a decade of pay freezes and below average pay awards. The cost-of-living crisis has devalued low pay even further. Many of the roles hit by long-term low pay such as nursery and early years support staff are those likely to be worst hit by the cost-of-living crisis. The sector will fail to attract or retain staff if wages fall further below the cost of living. Some traditionally low-paid retail jobs have quietly overtaken public sector pay at the bottom.

23. According to the National Careers Service[9], nursery assistants, early years educators, pre-school assistants, playgroup assistants and childcare workers earn between £14,000 and £24,000 depending on levels of experience for 38 – 40 hours per week. Based on a 38 hours week, the range per hour is between just over £7 to £12 an hour. Minimum pay rates in the retail sector average around £10 per hour.

24. UNISON believes that paying early years and nursery staff a proper wage is an investment – not just in the workforce but also in the local services they provide and the local economies they support. A substantial pay rise would be recouped via increases in tax revenue and reduced benefit, tax credit and Universal Credit expenditure.

Financial/Structural Challenges

25. Research carried out by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)[10] published in December 2022 identified that providing free childcare for all families until the end of primary school could boost the UK economy by £13bn per year.

26. However, post Covid, the childcare/early years sector is in financial crisis. A recent warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) stated that the early years sector will see an 8% drop in real-terms funding over the next three years.[11]
     
27. 400 nurseries across England have folded since August 2020 from a total of 27,610 according to Ofsted[12]. There has also been a dramatic reduction in the number of childminders, more than 11% in the last two years.

28. A survey carried out in June 2022 by sector body Early Education[13] in association with education unions the NAHT, NEU and Unison, has found that more than half of all maintained nursery schools in England had an in-year deficit in 2021-22 and 28% of had a cumulative deficit.  Only 4 in ten (41%) had been able to set a balanced budget for 2022-23.  44% could not and 15% didn’t yet know if they were able to. 

29. In order to balance budgets, maintained nursery schools are having to cut staffing and services to the extent that for some the only teacher on site will be the headteacher.  This jeopardises the high quality of teaching which research has repeatedly shown makes a crucial difference to children’s outcomes in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country.

30. The survey data suggests further closures are likely as 2% of respondents were already consulting on closure or expecting to do so imminently; 12% were in discussion about their future with their local authority, and 21% expected to face closure within three years on current budget projections.

Summary

31. In the short term, the government must increase the funding to childcare providers to prevent the costs increasing further, to ensure more childcare places are available and ensure staff are paid fairly

32. Longer term, there must be wholesale reform of childcare/early years provision and development of a sustainable high quality early education and childcare system that provides:

• fully funded childcare from the point of need
• affordable and flexible so women who want to work can
• good pay, terms and conditions for the staff that deliver it
• high quality education for all children
• including adequate provision for disabled children and those with special educational needs

January 2023