- Conference
- 2024 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 12 October 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes the UNICEF report from September 2023 which found that 70% of UK-based parents of children and new babies felt that life was getting harder for parents. Over two-thirds of parents believe that the Government is not doing enough to support them.
In the UNICEF survey of parents of 0-4-year-olds, 78% reported that the cost of living crisis had negatively impacted their family life, with 61% saying their mental health has been affected. Besides the cost of living, other factors identified as making it harder to be a parent included: a lack of available childcare; less time to spend with their children; fewer local support services for parents and young children; and the rising cost of housing.
The difficulty of accessing childcare is borne out by the Coram’s Childcare Survey 2023 which found that only half of local areas offered sufficient childcare for children under two, a decrease of 7% on 2022, and under half offered enough childcare for parents working full-time, a decrease of 11% on last year.
Conference also notes the September 2023 report from the Young Women’s Trust which identified the gendered aspects of the cost of living crisis and how it impacts young women, and particularly young mothers, more severely than their male peers. These pressures on young mothers are a contributory factor in the Gender Pay Gap, with 30% of young women forced to remain in low-paying jobs because they can’t afford to leave.
The YWT found that 69% of young single mums are ‘filled with dread’ when they have to think about their finances. 45% of young mums, whether partnered or single, have taken on new debt over the last year and 70% say it is a struggle to make their money last till the end of the month.
Shockingly, the Young Women’s Trust found that 40% of young women with children sometimes have to choose between feeding themselves and feeding their children, with that number rising to 52% of young women with children who were in receipt of benefits.
Conference believes that this crisis is failing parents and failing children, with the Child Poverty Action Group recording that 4.2 million children (29% of all UK children) are now living in poverty.
Conference also recognises that families and childcare responsibilities take many forms, and that it is important not to stereotype families or assume that all families resemble the ‘traditional’ nuclear family. Conference believes that all parents and children need to be supported in a way which celebrates the many forms that parenthood and family life can exist.
Conference believes that radical action is necessary to address the childcare crisis, to support parents, to enable young people to become parents if they wish to, and to give all children a healthy, secure start in life.
Conference welcomes the work done by the National Women’s Committee in campaigning for better childcare provision and more family-friendly policies in the workplace; in supporting the work done by UNISON’s local government service group and others in calling for a well-paid, professional and secure childcare workforce; and in highlighting the gendered impact of caring responsibilities.
Conference asks the National Women’s Committee to:
1)Promote its work campaigning for better childcare in the UK and for more parent- and family-friendly policies at work;
2)Work with UNISON’s service groups to promote more child-friendly policies at work, and to consider producing, where necessary, bargaining guidance and model policies aimed at supporting parents in the workplace;
3)Work with UNISON’s local government service group, and other service groups where relevant, to highlight the importance of childcare being provided by trained, professional childcare workers with good pay and conditions;
4)Continue to campaign against the Gender Pay Gap, and to highlight the impact that parenthood, and gendered caring responsibilities, have in disadvantaging women in the workplace generally and with regards to pay in particular;
5)Work with the National Young Members Forum to identify specific barriers and issues experienced by young workers who are parents, and to promote UNISON’s work around childcare to young members;
6)Work with Labour Link to encourage the Labour Party to commit in their manifesto to universal access to pre-school childcare, as a social good.