Plea for aid to crisis-hit childcare sector

The TUC has backed a call for emergency aid for the childcare industry with the release of a report arguing that it would allow nurseries, childminders, and other facilities to stay open while practising social distancing.

Childcare is a vital part of our economic recovery, according to the TUC, which believes that at least one in four nurseries may struggle to reopen.

The TUC says it is concerned that a lack of childcare risks mums having to leave their jobs – potentially reversing decades of progress women have made in the labour market. It is therefore asking for a government cash bailout and a range of emergency measures to prevent job losses among working parents whose childcare arrangements are at risk.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady commented: “Our childcare sector is on the brink of collapse – and it’s putting women’s jobs on the line. If childcare places disappear, women will be pushed out of the workforce.

“The government can’t stand by while mums are forced out of their jobs,” she continued. “Childcare is necessary if we are going to work our way out of this economic crisis and stop the misery of mass unemployment.”

https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-06/ForcedOut2.pdf