Opinion: Does Jeremy Hunt Hate Children?
by Edie Miller
The chancellor’s recent budget announcement of 30 hours of free childcare for one and two-year-olds is too little, too late.
Tag: childcare
Opinion: Who Can Afford £225 a Week for Childcare?
by Edie Miller
Labour has promised free breakfast clubs for primary school children. But fixing Britain’s broken childcare system will take more than a bowl of cornflakes, writes Edie Miller.
Report: Royal Mail Wants to Close Its Workers’ Nursery During the Pandemic
by Shahed Ezaydi
Childsplay has been a lifeline for Royal Mail parents since 1989, though particularly during the past year. Now the company plans to rip it away, just when workers need it most. Shahed Ezaydi reports.
Report: Early Years Practitioners Are Being Forced Into Work During Lockdown. Now They’re Getting Organised
by Sophie K Rosa
While teachers have fought for and won the closure of schools during lockdown, early years settings are being forced to stay open. Now, practitioners are starting to get organised. Sophie K Rosa reports.
Novara FM: ‘Tired From the Heart’: Voices From the Care Sector
Care work faces a constant struggle for recognition, leaving some workers 'tired from the heart'. What would it mean to advance an alternative vision of the sector? Sophie K Rosa, Craig Gent and James Butler find out.
Opinion: Why Scrapping Hostile Environment Policies Would Benefit Kids, Parents and Childcare Workers
by Miranda Hall and Veronica Deutsch
This year many families have scrambled for childcare solutions - often in the form of informal childcare. Against a renewed push for regularisation from some parts of the sector, Miranda Hall and Veronica Deutsch argue our sights ought to be set on the anti-migrant policies which force people to work invisibly.
Opinion: ‘Family Values’ Without Class is a Dead End for Labour
by Aaron Bastani
The family is often seen as the political territory of the right. But with child poverty skyrocketing and families forced into increasingly abysmal living conditions, it’s right that Starmer wishes to reclaim it. To do so, argues Aaron Bastani, he must move beyond platitudes to a message that puts class politics at its heart.
Report: Big Business Is Muscling in on the UK’s Nursery Racket
by Sophie K Rosa
In Germany and France, around 3-4% of nurseries are private; in the UK, 84% are. All the evidence suggests that these nurseries provide worse childcare and working conditions. Is this the free market doing its thing, or the result of government negligence? Sophie K Rosa reports.
Opinion: The ‘radical nannies’ Organising to Support Each Other Through Covid-19
by Veronica Deutsch
Dominic Cummings has accidentally put childcare on the agenda, writes Veronica Deutsch, but within the sector not all workers are equal. High precarity is particularly common in nannying work, and, while coronavirus has highlighted the need for better support, regulation can feel like a threat to the most vulnerable.
Coronavirus Is Breaking the Foster Care System
by Josh Gabert-Doyon
Coronavirus has exposed the systematic undervaluing of social reproduction work – and nowhere more so than in the foster care system, writes Josh Gabert-Doyon.
Community Not Capital: Creating a Childcare System That Actually Works
by Andrea Marie, Camille Barbagallo and Nadine Houghton
Mums for Corbyn activists explain how Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party must seize the opportunity to propose a childcare system that addresses and meets the needs of mothers and their families.
Childcare Costs: How the Government Is Failing Both Parents and Providers
by Lily Canter
This September a flagship government scheme will be rolled out across the country with the promise of providing 30 free childcare hours a week to all three and four-year-olds. But in reality parents and early years providers will have to plug a funding gap, with some nurseries already forced to shut down.