Nursery World - Parents face challenges accessing childcare as lockdown eases

Working parents will continue to have problems finding the childcare they need for the foreseeable future, a social enterprise specialising in intergeneration care has warned.

Working parents worry they will be discriminated against by their employer if they struggle to find childcare, as settings reopen to fewer children because of social distancing measures

Findings from the latest survey by Childcare Champions, part of United for All Ages, show that more than half of parents who responded to the survey (52 percent) were concerned that their early years setting or school would not be able to care for their children when restrictions lifted.

More than 40 per cent feared that due to social distancing restrictions, there would not be the capacity to offer their children a place. And a quarter of parents who relied on grandparents to support them with their childcare, faced challenges because restrictions on their lockdown have not been lifted.

Even for those parents with children returning to school on or after 1 June, the majority of before- and after-school clubs are not yet reopening, leaving parents unable to access access the wrap-around care they need to work.

The report's author Megan Pacey, told Nursery World, ‘There are still a huge number of parents who have no support, in terms of early years and childcare. And I don’t think it’s going to be a fast-changing picture in terms of parents being able to access childcare places in the way they could previously, any time soon.

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