MPs call for childcare security

A new report has been published by the Petitions Committee looking at a number of factors that may impact the childcare sector. Titled Impact of Covid-19 on new parents: one year on, the report examines support services for new parents, employment challenges, childcare and a range of other needs. It was written in response to a petition which received over 200 thousand signatures.

According the report’s findings, access to childcare is critical to new parents in the post-covid world, wanting to re-enter the workforce, but the lasting impact of the pandemic is affecting supply. Relying on reports from the Early Years Alliance, it noted that although settings have been permitted to open for well over a year now, occupancy remains lower than it was pre-pandemic. This, the report argues, is likely to be exacerbated by the withdrawal of government support such as the furloughs scheme. The implication is that without paying parents, childcare settings cannot fully re-open, but without childcare settings re-opening, parents cannot return to work.

To avoid the Covid-19 pandemic becoming a tipping point for the childcare sector, the report calls for more government support for new parents returning to work after the pandemic, particularly for those with children aged under 3 who do not necessarily qualify for free childcare provision under the current rules. It also endorses a call for an independent review into childcare funding, to be published next summer. However, the government has dismissed this, saying such a review would be inappropriate at this time.