The Parents' and Carers' Coalition embraces a wide range of organisations including Age Concern, the Daycare Trust, Disability Alliance, 4Children, the Maternity Alliance, the National Family and Parenting Institute, One Parent Families, the TUC and Carers UK.
It was brought together by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in response to research showing that, with an ageing population and women choosing to have children later, parents could find themselves looking after both an elderly relative and a child at the same time.
The EOC points out that for the first time there are now more people aged over 60 than under 16 in the UK and that by 2021, one in five of the population will be over 65.
EOC chairwoman Julie Mellor said, 'Most of us will at some point have to balance caring for children, or ill, older or disabled relatives, with our job. A quarter of carers have dependent children too.'
She said there was a ground- swell of support for political action to help parents and carers The new coalition is calling for better pay, training and prospects for childcare and other care workers.
An EOC survey has revealed strong backing for raising the carers' allowance to 77 a week - the level of the basic state pension - and seven out of ten adults favoured policies to boost childcare resources or the ability of parents to spend more time at home during a child's first year, while 89 per cent of parents said there should be affordable childcare schemes for all school-age children during school holidays. The survey also showed that nearly four out of ten mothers and more than one father in ten had left a job or been unable to take up work because of their parenting responsibilities and the lack of affordable childcare.
A third of parents felt stressed about finding enough time to spend with their children. This rose to 41 per cent of fathers with children under five and nearly half of mothers who worked full-time.
In the survey of parents and carers, four in ten parents wanted more financial backing, three in ten wanted more flexibility at work and nearly two in ten wished to see better services. Among carers, half wanted better services, three in ten urged more financial support and just over one in ten wanted more flexibility.
The National Family and Parenting Institute's campaigns manager, Gill Keep, said she was optimistic about the coalition's prospects of changing Government policy and welcomed the growing numbers of employers who recognised the need for flexibility. But she said the current legislation, which only requires companies to 'consider' requests for flexible working, should be strengthened.
