- Conference
- 2025 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 9 October 2024
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without a childcare strategy, despite this being a commitment of the Northern Ireland Executive’s New Decade New Approach agreement.
Conference also notes that international and regional comparisons of the cost of formal childcare indicate that Northern Ireland has some of the highest childcare costs meaning that families are spending more on childcare in Northern Ireland than they are in other countries and in other regions of the UK.
Conference is concerned that the implication of this can mean that parents may only be marginally better off working in paid employment, if at all, and they are often staying at home and looking after their children. This, of course, has particular implications for women who continue to undertake the majority of childcare within the home.
Some parents are left with no choice but to quit full time work to care for their children, which consequently widens the gender, ethnicity, LGBT+ and disability pay gaps further as women are often the primary carer for children.
Conference believes that the lack of affordable, high quality and accessible childcare has become an increasingly important issue as the proportion of women participating in the paid labour market has grown and the requirement for childcare provision outside of the home has risen.
Conference also believes that women with children are much less likely to participate in the labour market, and when they do, they are more likely to work in insecure and part-time positions. In addition to this, the pay penalty for motherhood is large, and parental leave entitlements are skewed towards mothers staying at home. There is growing agreement internationally of the importance of investing in the social infrastructure of childcare provision.
Conference welcomes recent progress on the issue with the announcement of a £25million package of measures. We welcome the introduction of the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy (NICS) as part of these measures, as well as funding to expand current early years and childcare provisions, address sustainability challenges within the sector and the establishment of 22.5 hours funded pre-school education for all children in their pre-school year. However, we believe these measures should be extended beyond their initial spend to include all parents with children of all ages.
Conference instructs the National Women’s Committee to support the UNISON Northern Ireland campaign for
• a fully resourced childcare strategy for Northern Ireland.
• 30-hours free Childcare in Northern Ireland, with the proviso that is properly funded.
• Redirecting state spending from subsidisation of childcare to supply and investment in childcare services.
• drastic improvement in the pay and conditions associated with childcare work.
• Unionisation and collective bargaining or a system of sectoral agreements in the childcare sector.
• Introduce genuine flexible working arrangements into the Northern Ireland labour market for the benefit of workers and employees, not just employers.