Childcare issues force parents out of work

More than one in 10 parents in Scotland have been forced out of work due to problems finding suitable childcare, a survey from mothers’ rights group Pregnant Then Screwed has found.

The new data, from 1,156 online responses, showed that 11% of Scottish parents with children under five had left jobs over childcare issues. It found that just one third of parents have the childcare they need, while more than two-fifths of those that don’t said this was due to lack of availability (43%) or cost (41%).

Carole Erskine, Pregnant Then Screwed’s head of policy and campaigns in Scotland, commented:“We need to see this addressed as a priority from the government. It’s not just about costs – our new data shows that availability is a huge problem for parents too. Parents need to be able to afford to go to work, but they also need to have local childcare settings that their children can attend.”