Written evidence submitted by Young Women’s Trust

1. About Young Women’s Trust

1.1.        At Young Women’s Trust, we want to create a world where young women are valued, can make choices and look forward to a fairer financial future.​ We are working to create a more equal world of work and raise young women’s incomes through research, campaigning and offering direct support to young women to help them unlock their potential.

2. Summary
    

2.1.        The current system of childcare is not working for anyone. Young mothers and other parents are unable to access the childcare they need at a price they can afford. High childcare costs act to keep them out of the workplace or in low-paid jobs that fail to make use of their skills and potential.  Staff, many of whom are themselves young women - are poorly paid, overstretched and burnt out; and yet providers are struggling to stay in business because, amidst rising costs, the funding shortfall is too great.

2.2.        Children too lose out when their nursery is forced to close, staff are overworked, and high costs push their parents to a financial cliff-edge.
 

2.3.        A fundamental review and reimagining of our current childcare provision is needed to make sure supply meets demand and that it is fit for purpose: affordable to parents, sustainable for providers and flexible enough to enable young women to access work and training opportunities. Childcare is not an optional extra but a vital part of our infrastructure. It has the potential to unleash the contributions of young women to our society and economy. A childcare system that works for young women is one that serves the country as a whole and we urge the Government to take urgent action to make this happen, including by providing the necessary investment to guarantee access to high quality childcare in all areas of the country. 

2.4.        In the shorter term, with many parents struggling with the cost of living crisis, the government should provide more financial support to both parents and providers to help them meet the true costs of childcare. More should also be done to make young women aware of the support which is already available.

2.5.        All quotes and statistics in this response, unless otherwise stated are drawn from the Young Women’s Trust’s 2019 report Childcare: What young women want.

3. Affordability             

 

“Day care, I found out that it was between £45 to £50 [per day]. That’s about roughly what I’d be paid to work.”                                                       

                                                                                                                                            Young woman, Hull

 

 

“If mine was to go to nursery, part time, it costs me more than my rent. A single parent, one income. It doesn’t matter whether it’s one income or [you’re earning] just above the threshold. It doesn’t work, no matter what.”                                                                

                                                                                                                                                Young woman, London

3.1.   According to OECD data, the UK currently has the highest net childcare costs in the developed world.[1] These high costs disproportionately impact on young mothers, who, at the earliest stages of their working lives, are more likely to be in lower paid work. The effect is often to force young women out of work altogether, or into lower-paid, part time work with poorer career progression opportunities. This in turn contributes to young women earning on average a fifth less per year than their male peers – and, once on this path, the gulf only widens as they age.[2]

3.2.        High costs are limiting employment options
 

Our 2019 survey of young mums painted a bleak picture of the extent to which high childcare costs limits young women’s employment options:[3]
 

• More than 3 in 4 of young mums (78%) said a lack of flexible and affordable childcare was a barrier to finding employment
• 57% were unable to take up employment because of a lack of suitable childcare options
• 1 in 3 young mums was forced to leave a job because they could not afford childcare and more than half of those polled said they would work more hours if they could find flexible childcare at an affordable price.

The impacts of this are stark: our 2017 Young, Female and Forgotten report showed that new mothers and young women who live with a dependent child are six times more likely to become economically inactive than other young women.
 

3.3.        Support is inadequate and confusing

Although there are sources of support available to help parents meet the costs of childcare, many young women have found the current system to be piecemeal, confusing and inadequate.

We found that young women were unaware of important sources of support. For example, 68% of mums on Universal Credit were not aware told about JCP’s Flexible Support Fund which can provide additional support for childcare. This is concerning because it means huge numbers of young women are missing out on support that could make childcare more affordable.

Although awareness of support such as the 15- and 30-hours free childcare policies was better, young mums were not always able to make use of the funding.

• 84% had heard of the 30 hours policy, but one in three did not make use of the hours to which they are entitled
• The main reasons for not taking up the 30 hours were a lack of funded places at the local nursery (27%), or the hours on offer not meeting mums’ needs (13%)
• 82% were aware of the 15 hours policy, but two in five (40%) did not take up their hours
• The main reasons for not taking up the 15 hours were the hours on offer not meeting mums’ needs (20%) or a lack of funded places at the local nursery (10%).

3.4.        Upfront childcare costs are a particular challenge

The lack of support for upfront costs was a particular challenge which made young women unable to afford childcare. This was especially true for those moving from Universal Credit into employment and meant that it was impossible for many young women to secure a nursery place for their child:

• 50% said that the upfront cost of nursery care (deposit and advance payment) meant they had been unable to find appropriate care
• 64% of those claiming Universal Credit had been unable to take up childcare places due to upfront costs.

3.5.        Huge financial impact
 

The financial impacts of high costs and the inadequacy of existing support on young woman are stark. The 2019 survey showed that:
 

• Two thirds of employed young mums were struggling or just about managing financially, rising to 82% of those who were not working because they could not afford childcare
• 1 in 4 working mums skipped meals every day to make ends meet. Half of working mums were skipping meals at least once a week to provide for their children – rising to 64% among those on Universal Credit.
   

3.6.        The cost of living crisis is adding to the pressure
 

It is important to note that this research was carried out before the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, which have added to the financial pressure on parents and accelerated a trend of the closure of increasing numbers of childcare settings.[4]

In our annual survey of 4,000 young men and women in July 2022, we saw a deepening of the financial pressures young women are facing, particularly amongst young mums:[5]
 

• 82% of young women with childcare responsibilities told us that the increased cost of living has made things financially difficult for them
   
• Almost half (47%) of single mums and a third (33%) of young women with joint childcare responsibility have been unable to afford food or essential supplies in the last 12 months
   
• One in four (24%) of young women with caring responsibilities told us that not being able to afford the associated costs (e.g., travel, childcare, uniform etc) has made it difficult for them to apply for a job.

4. Flexibility

“You have to make choices around the childcare you can get as opposed to the other way around. Employers and education providers assume they come first and that you’ll figure out the childcare that matches it. But you tend to seek out and make decisions based on the childcare. If it was flexible, you’d be able to have options, so it’s the lack of options that are there. It limits where your life can go.”

                                                                                                                               Young woman, London

 

“I think the area is crying out for [childcare] that opens late. There’s nowhere I found that is open after 6pm and lots of people don’t finish work until 6pm. Or don’t get in the house until… my hospital hours, I’m going to be doing 8.30-9.30am shifts and from six pm when the nursery closes you still have to make up that gap.”              
                                                                                                                              Young woman, Newcastle

Affordability is not the only barrier young women face in accessing the childcare they need. Much of the formal childcare that is easily available is offered in a rigid structure which does not account for young women working irregular hours or who have working patterns outside a standard 9-5 working day.

Young women are disproportionately likely to have non-standard working patterns. This can include shift work and evening work, zero hours contracts or unpredictable shift patterns all of which increase the need for flexible childcare options Combined with a lack of flexibility in both the structure and funding of childcare this severely limits their options and has a negative impact on their income, current and future careers:[6]

• Over 3 in 5 young women with caring responsibilities are worried about balancing work with their caring responsibilities.
   
• Over half (53%) of young women with sole childcare responsibility are worried about their job security.
   
• 44% of young women have been offered a zero-hour contract, compared to a third (33%) of young men.
   
• Almost 1 in 5 (19%) HR decision makers told us that their organisation does not provide employees with a minimum of four weeks′ notice about their working hours. This was highest in the hospitality (36%) and arts, entertainment and recreation industries (23%) which have a high concentration of young women in low paid, insecure work.

Our childcare system needs to take into account the changing nature of modern working patterns and become more flexible and responsive to the needs of those working outside of the standard 9-5 working day. Such flexibility will only come about through a fundamental reimagining of the way childcare is funded and delivered.

5. Conclusion and recommendations
    

5.1.             Currently the childcare system is not working for anyone: parents, providers and staff are all struggling with system that is underfunded and unable to meet the demands of modern working life.
 

5.2.             Young Women’s Trust is calling the Government to guarantee truly affordable childcare that enables young women to work the hours they need to.
 

5.3.             This guarantee must be backed by a recognition of childcare as the critical infrastructure it is and funding and investment in line with the vital function childcare plays in supporting the economy.
 

5.4.             This must be directed by a fundamental review and reimagining of our current childcare provision to make sure supply meets demand and that it is fit for purpose: affordable to parents, sustainable for providers and flexible enough to enable young women to access work and training opportunities.
 

5.5.             We expect that a modern and effective system of childcare will include:

• a huge expansion in the availability of free childcare from the end of maternity leave
• a simplification of the support, including help with upfront costs
• provision that is flexible and responsive to the needs of working parents and non-standard working patterns

January 2023