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SECTION FIVE - GAPS IN PROVISION AND CONSTRAINTS
INTRODUCTION
5.1 Section Five seeks to identify and explore 'gaps' that parents have encountered in the current provision of childcare and details of barriers, and to explore real choices that parents have made in deciding to return to work/study and the extent to which childcare availability, accessibility and cost have placed constraints on the type of job and pattern of work they chose.
GAPS IN PROVISION
Typical Provision
5.2 Among respondents who use childcare in a typical week 14% said that there are times during the week where they would like to use childcare but are unable to access it. A discussion of the times of day when childcare is not available is included in chapter three, paragraph 3.18.
5.3 Problems with access to childcare are predominantly caused by a lack of suitable provision - nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said that they could not access childcare because they could not find anyone suitable to provide it. Affordability was the next single most important factor, but was cited by significantly fewer parents than mentioned a lack of suitable provision - just 19% of parents said that they could not afford provision at the times they wanted it.
Unexpected Changes in Arrangements or Requirements
5.4 Just under two-thirds (63%) of parents who use childcare in a typical week said that they have not had to cope with an experience where their usual arrangements break down or their normal requirements change unexpectedly.
5.5 The problems experienced by parents who have had this experience are summarised in Figure 5.1 below. These circumstances might include for example illness of child or usual childcare provider; or unexpected delays at work or the journey between work and the place where childcare is provided. The most common difficulty was in finding a suitable provider, with 37% of parents who had to make an unexpected change saying this was a problem, but almost as many parents (36%) said that although they had been in this situation they hadn't had any problems in making alternative arrangements.
5.6 There are no particular patterns amongst those who report that it is difficult to find someone suitable to provide childcare when there are unexpected changes in arrangements or that it is more expensive to find alternative provision in terms of labour market status. Household income is a factor in considering difficulties in finding someone suitable to provide childcare, with those with an income over £50k per annum more likely to report this as a difficulty. This may be because these are double income households with demanding jobs, which have less time to react to these types of changes.
Figure 5.1 - When your usual childcare arrangements breakdown or you need additional childcare outside your normal arrangements what are that problems you encounter in making arrangements? (As a proportion of those who have experienced this)
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 201 (those who use childcare in a typical week and have had an experience where normal arrangements break down or usual requirements change unexpectedly). Multiple responses to this question were possible.
DECISIONS TO WORK, STUDY OR NOT
Working or Not Working
5.7 Figure 5.2 shows that more than four out of ten of all parents surveyed (41%) said that they felt they did not have a real choice in the decision whether or not to work. This proportion is broadly similar for those who work (39%), but is higher for those who do not work (47%).
Figure 5.2 - Do you feel you had a real choice in the decision to work/not work?
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 940 (currently working); 364 (not currently working); 1304 (total)
5.8 Of those who felt they did not have a real choice in the decision on whether to work, childcare was a major factor in this for 56% of respondents (this rises to 62% of those who are not working, compared to 53% of respondents who are working). Of these 39% said that difficulties with both access to, and affordability of, childcare were important factors, with a further 12% citing just affordability and 5% mentioning just access as important reasons why they feel they did not have a real choice in the decision to work or not (see Figure 5.3)
Figure 5.3 - If you do not feel you had a real choice in the decision to work/not work was childcare access/affordability a major factor?
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 539 (those who do not feel they had a real choice in the decision to work/not work)
5.9 Almost all (94%) respondents who work were happy overall with their decision to do so, but only 70% of those who do not work said that they were happy not working. Some parents will choose not to work when they have children, but this finding suggests that, whilst there are a small minority who feel compelled to work because of the range of pressures they feel, there is a significant proportion that would like to work but cannot. Improved access to, and more affordable, childcare are factors that would help to allow some of these individuals to move into the labour market.
Figure 5.4 - Overall, are you happy with your decision to work/not work
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 940 (currently working); 364 (not currently working); 1304 (total)
5.10 Further analysis of those parents reporting that they are not happy with their decision to work or not work breaks down the findings above to show that it is those who are looking after the home and family who appear to be most likely to be unhappy with their decision not to work (se Figure 5.5).
Figure 5.5 - Labour market status of parents who are unhappy with their decision to work/not work
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 163 (those who are unhappy with their decision to work/not work) and 1304 (all respondents)
5.11 In terms of household income, those with an income less than £9.5k per annum are most likely to be unhappy with their decision to work/not work whilst those with an income over £25k are much more likely to be happy with their decision (see Figure 5.6). In addition, those not happy with their decision to work/not work are disproportionately drawn from the group of respondents who are single (and have never been married) - around 20% of those who say they are not happy are from this group, compared to just 9% among those who are happy with their decision. On the other hand, those who are happy with their decision to work/not work are disproportionately married, with 69% of the "happy" group being married and only 58% of the "not happy" group in this category.
Figure 5.6 - Income band of parents and whether they are happy/not happy with their decision to work/not work
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 770 (all respondents providing income details), consisting of 675 who are happy with their decision to work/not work and 95 who are not happy with their decision to work/not work. The total number "not happy" is a small base and should be treated with some caution.
5.12 The qualitative research shows that decisions about whether one or other parent wants to, or needs to, continue in paid work varies considerably by the characteristics of the household, in particular whether it is a lone or dual parent household, the nature of employment of the household members, and the availability of suitable, affordable childcare. The sample of parents who participated in the qualitative research enables analysis of the choices available for different household types.
5.13 Firstly, there are those parents (most commonly two-parent households where both parents have been in paid employment) who are in the position that they can afford for one parent to cease paid employment and be a full-time carer. There are two stages to this decision - whether it is affordable and whether the potential carer wants to stay at home. Additionally, future considerations such as the potential impact on the parent's career and pension arrangements have a role for these parents. The parents interviewed who had chosen this option were often those who were better off financially and in their thirties rather than twenties.
5.14 This category of parents includes cases of parents who had initially gone back to work when their child was 6 months old, but had then decided to give up work due to the struggles of balancing work with caring for their child. The interviews also found examples of households that could afford for one parent not to work at all, but the parent prefers to go back to work (even part-time) reporting that they would be bored and unfulfilled by being a stay at home parent and would miss the adult company.
5.15 The qualitative research also found parents who are in a situation where they would prefer for one parent (usually the mother) not to work in order to provide childcare but who cannot afford to do so. Again, these are couple households, but often in slightly lower paid jobs than the group referred to in the previous category in paragraph 5.13. Different strategies are undertaken depending on the employment circumstances of the parents but a common strategy is for the mother to work part-time in order to continue earning but still retain the balance of care for the child/ren.
5.16 An important point to note is that many parents interviewed who were in this situation where ideally they would not work, often suffer from feelings of guilt at having to juggle their work and home lives. There were examples of parents in this category who had actually changed jobs, or more commonly changed their hours extensively, in order to have a job that would suit their childcare arrangements and allow them to be flexible. Shift work and changing work hours or indeed jobs are common strategies but are often a felt to be a compromise.
5.17 This category also includes parents who feel that it would be impossible for them to undertake paid work because of difficulties accessing and financing childcare. As well as parents who feel they simply could not afford to work due to the cost of childcare, others appeared to have weighed up the benefits of working against staying at home to look after the family and decided that what extra money they would have is not worth it. Thus, these parents feel there is no point in working when most of the money earned would go on childcare whereas if they do not work, they are entitled to other benefits. This is often the case among lone parents, and parents living on low incomes or in deprived areas.
5.18 As discussed above, parents carefully consider the amount of time they want to or are able to access care for their children - particularly in relation to the paid work/parenting role and the cost/income relationship. It also appears that there are mothers who want to work or who need to work for financial reasons, but they still keep the balance of care of their children. This can be driven by cost - simply not being able to afford full-time childcare - while other parents only want (and are financially in a position) to work part-time in order to be available for their children at other times. Commonly two and a half or three days paid work is seen as the optimum for both financial and care considerations. Although the analysis is presented as staged, the decision-making is not linear - the decision-making processes about work, cost and childcare are complex and can be driven by differing factors. For example, the first stage for households might be that maximum potential income from both parents is required to maintain the household therefore the decision is made and then options for childcare are considered. In other households, there is more financial flexibility and other considerations enter the equation. However, all households appear to go through a complex decision-making process once the decision has been made that some childcare is required.
Training, Studying or Not
5.19 Overall, 13% of respondents said that they were currently training or studying. Figure 5.7 shows that 80% of all parents surveyed said that they felt they had a real choice in the decision to train/study or not. This proportion is slightly higher for those who are currently training or studying (83%) and is the same for those who do not currently train or study.
Figure 5.7 - Do you feel you had a real choice in the decision to train, study or not
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 168 (currently training/studying); 1136 (not currently training/studying); 1304 (total)
5.20 Of those who felt they did not have a real choice, childcare was a major factor in this for 49% of respondents. Of those respondents, 35% said that difficulties with both access to and affordability of childcare were important factors, with a further 13% citing just affordability and 2% mentioning just access as important reasons why they feel they did not have a real choice in the decision to work or not (see Figure 5.8)
Figure 5.8 - If you do not feel you had a real choice in the decision to train, study or not was childcare access/affordability a major factor?
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 194 (those who do not feel they had a real choice in the decision to train, study or not)
5.21 The vast majority (95%) of respondents who are currently training or studying were happy overall with their decision to do so, falling to 88% of those who do not currently train or study (see Figure 5.9). Whilst the proportion of respondents who are happy with their decision to train, study or not is higher than those who are happy with their decision to work or not there are still a significant minority of parents (12%) who are not training or studying but would like to be. Again, the reasons in many cases are likely to be complex and not only childcare-related, however Figure 5.8 above shows that childcare is a significant factor for those who do not feel they have a real choice.
Figure 5.9 - Overall, are you happy with your decision to train, study or not
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 168 (currently training/studying); 1136 (not currently training/studying); 1304 (total)
THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDCARE ON CHOSEN WORK PATTERNS
5.22 Most households had not reduced total working hours in order to provide childcare. Proportionately more respondents in single parent households said that they had not reduced their working hours than those in couple households (72% compared to 60% 22) however a further 39% of couple households reported that one partner had reduced their working hours to provide childcare. Figure 5.10 shows reduction in working hours across different types of household. This data does not capture households where the respondent and/or their partner has given up work completely (either to provide childcare or for another reason). Further detail is included in Annex Report Two, which shows the proportion of working respondents who have reduced their hours to provide childcare and the proportion of respondents' partners who are working and who have reduced their hours to provide childcare.
Figure 5.10 - Reduction in working hours in order to provide childcare
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 186 (respondents who are working and do not have a partner); and 686 (respondents with a partner, where both respondent and partner are working).
5.23 The lower number of lone parent households that have reduced their working hours might reflect a degree of choice for the two-parent/partner households. A single parent might not be able to afford to reduce working hours, whereas a two-parent/partner household might choose to forego income to spend more time with the child/ren. The qualitative research did reveal cases where two-parent households had made the decision for one parent not to work and look after the children, which could mean sacrifices being made in terms of lifestyle and disposable income. On the other hand, there were lone parents interviewed in the qualitative research who did not work as they did not feel it made financial sense given they would have to pay for childcare and would lose their benefits.
5.24 For parents who have chosen to become self-employed, childcare is often a key consideration. More than half (53%) of respondents and 8% of respondents' partners who are self-employed said that the main reason for this was related to providing care for their child. The main reasons for this tend to be around flexibility over days, times and total hours worked, however, the total number of respondents is small and this may not be representative of the wider population.
Working patterns
5.25 The vast majority of respondents and their partners who work never work from home (91% of respondents and 95% of partners). Those who are studying or training are much more likely to do this from home at least sometimes however just under two-thirds of respondents (63%) and just under half of respondents' partners (46%) always go out to train/study. More detail about working and studying locations is shown in Figure 5.11.
Figure 5.11 - Working and studying/training from home
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 921 respondents who work; 895 respondents' partners who work; 155 respondents who train/study; 70 respondents' partners who train/study
5.26 The availability of child-friendly working practices was explored with those who work. Across all measures availability is higher for respondents than for their partners, however, this reflects the larger proportion of those who state that they do not know what child-friendly working practices are available in their partner's workplace. Most common are practices that allow more flexibility over total hours, days and times worked such as part-time working, flexi-time and job share. Paid paternity leave and leave when children are ill are also relatively common.
Figure 5.12 - Child-Friendly Work Practices in Workplace
Source: 2006 Quantitative Survey
Base = 921 (respondents who are working) and 895 (respondents' partners who are working). Multiple responses are possible.
CONSTRAINTS IN ACCESSING AVAILABLE CHILDCARE
5.27 In terms of the constraints faced by parents in accessing childcare, the qualitative research shows that cost remains a common key issue for parents. For a small group of parents, cost can mean that accessing care is not a viable option or that cost has an impact on the hours they are able to work or on other elements of lifestyle owing to the need to cut back on spending. A small minority of the parents interviewed report that potential help with childcare costs through Child Tax Credit and other government measures to help with costs had only been a limited help. On the other hand, there were examples among the parents interviewed where they are very positive about financial help from the government stating that they would have been unable to manage without it.
5.28 Another key issue facing parents is quality of provision and finding someone that they feel can look after their children to their own satisfaction. This can be the factor driving the decision to use informal childcare, or not to use any childcare, and not take part in paid work. In general, parents are very satisfied with the childcare they use (and indeed would not be using it if this was not the case), there are, however, reports of dissatisfaction with some of the childcare options parents investigated or even tried temporarily.
5.29 There appear to be some specific problems with supply in different areas. In particular, in many urban areas there is a large amount of provision, however places are oversubscribed. In rural areas there are simply few, or no, providers. This lack of supply in rural areas was a common problem cited by parents, with many not being able to access the childcare they would like at the times that were suitable.
5.30 The nature of parents' jobs and the attitude of their employers can have considerable negative or positive effects on ease of accessing childcare. On the positive side, there were reports from parents that the flexibility of their employer had been the key factor in enabling them to access suitable childcare. This can be flexibility on a semi-permanent basis - for example allowing a change in working hours to fit around childcare, or more ad hoc flexibility and understanding about the demands of being a parent.
5.31 On the other hand, there were reports from parents that given the nature of their job, it is not possible to change hours or disappear at short notice so they have to rely on family and friends. In other cases parents stated that it was not the nature of the job that was inflexible but the nature of the employer - being off work or changing hours for emergency or ad hoc child-related things was frowned upon by some bosses.
5.32 A theme running through the findings of the qualitative research, which has been picked up in previous sections of the report, is the importance of informal care through extended family. Several parents using informal childcare report that they would be unable to work without such care owing to costs, hours worked, shift work and the needs of children. Other parents only rely on family when usual childcare arrangements break down or in holidays, and would need to take time off work if their family were not available. Often, it is a family member who takes and drops of children to the carer to fill gaps between, for example, the time the parent starts work and the time the nursery opens or school starts.
5.33 Those with no family in the local area emerged in the qualitative research as facing particular difficulties in relation to childcare - particularly in relation to participation in paid work. Another group emerging as having particular issues are those involved in shift work, however, this can either be a real benefit for some families or a real challenge for others depending on their shift patterns, the attitude of employers and different childcare arrangements.
5.34 Many parents talk about the difficult emotions involved with handing their children over to other people, particularly those who need to undertake paid work but would rather be looking after their children. However, for a small proportion of parents, the problem of placing their children in childcare can be insurmountable, particularly if a child will not settle and is constantly upset in the absence of the parent. The interviews found cases where parents have had to remove their child from childcare due to this. Where parents do not have the option to discontinue work and have to leave unsettled and upset children at carers, this impacts upon parents' performance at work and their wider emotional well-being. Other parents talked about the guilt they felt at leaving their children with other people and how this was compounded if a child was ill and mentioned having to balance guilt about leaving their child with guilt about letting down employers and colleagues.
5.35 Key findings in this section:
- Lack of suitable provision was the main problem for parents in accessing childcare.
- Approximately two in five respondents did not feel they had a real choice in their decision to work/not work. Childcare was a factor for 56% of these respondents.
- Most respondents say that they are happy with their decisions both on whether to work (88%) and whether to train or study (89%).
- A reduction in working hours in order to provide childcare is more common in two-parent households than in one-parent households.
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