Childcare biggest barrier to women returning to work

[Simona]

Karren Brady believes the cost of childcare is a big barrier to women returning to work
As champion and govt advisor on 'small businesses' I feel she is missing the point...cost is no the only barrier...employers' inflexibility is a big worry for women or at least this what I hear from mums.

She too wants high quality 'affordable childcare'...can high quality be affordable and why should CMs who run small businesses not be fairly rewarded?

She says

“Most of us won’t leave our children unless we go into a job that respects us, pays us well and give us the opportunity that we want, and if you put a barrier of quality childcare into that, it becomes even more difficult,”

Sorry Karren I personally suggest you stick to football and offer us high quality 'affordable' footballers??!!
The problem with some govt advisors is that they have not a clue about childcare!

Karren Brady: 'Childcare is biggest barrier to women in workplace' - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-business/10434161/Karren-Brady-Childcare-is-biggest-barrier-to-women-in-workplace.html)

[sarah707]

But we are small businesses and need to earn a living! :rolleyes:

[Simona]

But we are small businesses and need to earn a living! :rolleyes:

Well you can Sarah...as long as your quality is high but 'affordable'...affordable to whom we may ask??

[FloraDora]

I was amazed at Sarah's post about £4.85 for 2 year olds and then a £1 per hour drop for 3-4 year old - which is not a living wage!

I am wondering if they are trying to squeeze CM's out of the 3-4 year old childcare arena by deliberately keeping the payment low!!! In a school I didn't worry about nursery funding as I could subsidise within my budget....so I am now contacting my old network to kick up a fuss!!

[bunyip]

That's Karren Brady, the obvious spokesperson for the ordinary, low-income working mum is it?

The same Karren Brady who runs West Ham United FC.

The same West Ham United FC who had a manager whose dog Rosie had £100,000s saved in a Monaco bank account for tax purposes.

I think we live in different worlds. :p

[TooEarlyForGin?]

She says “Most of us won’t leave our children unless we go into a job that respects us, pays us well and give us the opportunity that we want, and if you put a barrier of quality childcare into that, it becomes even more difficult

Most of us would also like to work for someone that respects us and pays us well and gives us the opportunities we want....

Funny how they seem to forget all the women that work with children on already very low wages, and sometimes treated appallingly by parents. Makes me so cross.

[Simona]

That's Karren Brady, the obvious spokesperson for the ordinary, low-income working mum is it?

The same Karren Brady who runs West Ham United FC.

The same West Ham United FC who had a manager whose dog Rosie had £100,000s saved in a Monaco bank account for tax purposes.

I think we live in different worlds. :p

That's the one Bunyip and the one who runs the Apprentice roadshow alongside his lordship Sugar!!!
We certainly live in a different world and I wonder if she could justify what 'her footballers' get as a weekly salary compared to our low income and subsidy for early education?

It makes me a bit cross to think that women like her, who I appreciate pay their taxes and create jobs, are actually entitled to 15 hrs of 'free childcare' from the likes of us on very low incomes!!

Next thing she will get an OBE or Ladyship for her Services to the government! :angry:

[Rebecca-perrin]

Hi I'm a level 3 Early years student and you think that's bad I had one women who would pay me around £6 and then get me to pay travel costs and it ended up I was losing more than I was getting! Is this what they mean by affordable child minders? Because if so I don't agree

[blue bear]

When I first started chikdminding in 1997 the cost per hour in my area was £1.80, my hubby had two jobs one of which was in a bar that paid £1.50 an hour.
Now with minimum wage at £6 something, surely my £3.50 an hour is mega affordable (high quality too). There seems to be a feeling that parents shouldn't have to pay for childcare for their own children for some reason that childcarers do not deserve the same monetary reward as cleaners,class room assitants, shop workers etc and are somehow less important than employed workers.

[Emra81]

I might be getting the wrong end of the stick here because I don't know a lot about the figures for childcare costs relative to average earnings nowadays compared to many years ago BUT some 30 odd years ago when I was a wee nipper there were A LOT more stay at home mums....loads of my mums friends were at home with their kids and we weren't very well off families. My Mum worked nights when money got too tight so that childcare didn't have to be paid for. Could part of the claim that childcare costs are high actually be partly to do with a general trend over the years towards many more Mums going back to work (often through financial necessity) and therefore childcare costs affect far more families than they used to?

I'd like to see some factual evidence that proves childcare costs so much more than it did back then....I'm going to hazard a guess that it doesn't exist though!

[gef918]

Well, introducing childminder agencies is bound to bring the cost of childcare down.

Right?