Nelson Mandela famously declared that “the true character of society is revealed in how it treats its children”. If this is true, then our country’s soul is in a parlous state indeed. Rishi Sunak’s do-nothing spring statement is set to plunge 150,000 more children into poverty. And despite promising to help families, the chancellor made precisely zero mention of something all families know is in deep crisis: childcare.
Almost everyone involved in caring for young children is at breaking point – physically, emotionally, financially. One recent study documented “a strong sense of fatigue and exhaustion” after two years of pandemic disruption: as one parent said, “you start to feel kind of buried under it”. In a survey of mothers by the campaign group Pregnant then Screwed, almost half of respondents had considered quitting their jobs because of childcare issues.
