Although my two children are now in their twenties, I remain eternally grateful to the young women - and one young man - who helped our family (how?). I hope it's only a coincidence that two of them went on to become police officers!
As Cabinet Minister for Women, I was determined to make life a bit easier for parents. As well as paid paternity leave and better paid maternity leave, I gave all parents with children up to age six the 'right to request' shorter working hours. That law - which, of course, includes nursery workers themselves - has helped over a million parents change their working hours. Indeed, it's been so successful that it has now been extended to carers and, soon, will be to parents with older children.
Children need the best possible care, including the stimulus of a good nursery. Parents need as much choice as possible on working hours - whether that's a part-time job supplemented by family tax credit and child support; one parent working full-time, the other part-time; or both working full-time. But a growing number are choosing to do what one of our former childcarers did. She and her husband have organised their shifts so that they look after their children between them.
As parents themselves seek more flexibility, childcare needs to become more flexible too. Nurseries need to offer opening hours and sessions that meet different parents' different needs - not always an easy juggling act for nursery staff themselves. The financial crisis that has hit high-paid City jobs has also affected many nannies (see Analysis, 22 January).
But whatever the challenges of changing needs and difficult economic conditions, I am quite sure of one thing: there will always be a need for people with the gift of caring for other people's children.
- By Patricia Hewitt, MP for Leicester West. From 2001 to 2005, she was Cabinet Minister for Women and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
