New thinking urged on childcare help for parents working around the clock

Two new research reports for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation argue that stronger action to protect working parents from the growing pressures of the 24-hour, 7-day-a-week society may be at least as important as making childcare services available at evenings and weekends.

Childcare services at atypical times
A study of the barriers preventing expansion of existing childcare services to cover non-typical hours identified just a few, innovative, services that have started to emerge. These included a community nanny scheme, weekend childcare provision at a hospital and a childminding network to help police employees.

But researchers at the Institute of Education’s Thomas Coram Research Unit (London University) who surveyed the 150 Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships in England discovered that while there was near-unanimous agreement on the need to develop childcare services outside normal working hours, fewer than a third had yet taken any action. They also found that:

• While most parents working non-standard hours apparently relied on partners, relatives or friends for childcare, demand for formal childcare services appeared greatest for an hour or so on either side of the working day, rather than late evening, overnight or at weekend.
• Childminders were generally seen as the most appropriate formal care providers at non-standard times because of their home base. However, a survey of 600 childcare providers found that few childminders or nurseries took children before 7am and hardly any worked beyond 7pm or at weekends.
• Although more than a third of childminders were prepared to consider working outside their current hours, this rarely extended to late evenings, overnight or weekends. They and other childcare workers were often concerned about the impact on their own families if they worked longer hours.

June Statham, co-author of the report, said: “Childcare services at non-standard times of day cannot simply be bolted on to existing services. It may be better to develop new types of service, recruiting people without current childcare responsibilities, rather than expecting existing providers to extend their hours.”

Ann Mooney, co-author of the report, said: “The overriding requirement is to consider the needs of children and to help parents balance their family responsibilities with the requirements of paid work. We need policies for atypical hours childcare services, but we also need to consider how employment policies and working hours could be made more ‘family friendly’, so that parents have less need for care at these times.”

Combining self-employment and family life
The second study, carried out by NatCen, the National Centre for Social Research, used representative survey data on more than 10,000 families with children under 15 to examine the experiences of self-employed parents. This showed that around one in four families have at least one self-employed parent. Among these:

• Almost half the mothers interviewed (47 per cent) had chosen self-employment mainly for childcare reasons, compared with a small minority of fathers (6 per cent).
• While self-employed mothers generally enjoyed more flexible working arrangements than their employee counterparts, this was less true of women who employed other people in their businesses. The latter were more likely to work long, atypical hours and to make use of formal childcare services. They were also more likely to report unmet demand for childcare.
• Although many self-employed mothers had decided to become self-employed for the flexibility it can provide, this was not always a matter of free choice. Some low-earning self-employed mothers chose self-employment because they lacked access to affordable childcare.
• Long working hours were widespread among self-employed fathers. Nearly six out of ten fathers (59 per cent) who employed other people worked more than 48 hours a week compared with 41 per cent of self-employed fathers who had no staff and 28 per cent of fathers who were employed. Almost two-thirds of the self-employed fathers with staff said they usually or sometimes worked on both Saturdays and Sundays.
• Self-employed couples were especially likely to work long, non-standard hours. More than a third (35 per cent) worked a combined total of over 90 hours a week, compared with less than 15 per cent of other dual-earner couples.

Alice Bell, co-author of the report, said: “Self-employment is often associated with flexibility and choice over when, where and how much to work. While the evidence suggests this is generally true, this study reveals important qualifications concerning long hours and atypical working as self-employed parents try to meet their work and childcare responsibilities.”

Ivana La Valle, co-author of the study, added: “It could be argued that self-employed parents should benefit from similar legislative protection against excessive working hours to the law covering employees. However, these research findings also raise the question of how far government should go in promoting a ‘24-7’ society given the negative consequences for family life. For example, less Sunday working would benefit many owners of small businesses who are parents, as well as employees with children.”