SWBG blog

Childcare Survey 2023 Launch

Our Coordinator, Carmen Martinez, discusses the launch of our Childcare Survey 2023.

Earlier this week we launched our Childcare Survey 2023! 

The Scottish Women's Budget Group (SWBG) are seeking the views of women in Scotland who have direct childcare responsibilities at present. We would like to understand the impact of managing childcare on families and particularly, the effect that the 30 hours of funded childcare is having, and whether this meets families' needs at a time of increasing energy prices, more expensive basic goods, and higher mortgage repayments and rental costs.   

Our Women’s Survey 2022 showed the disparity in responsibility for childcare arrangements with over 80% of women who responded having made some change to their paid work arrangements to manage childcare while less than 40% of their partners made any changes. Considering this trend along with the latest evidence on the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on women, we want to know whether this crisis is also impacting on childcare responsibilities, and what effect this is having on women's health, finances, and overall wellbeing.   

Our previous survey also revealed the difficulties encountered by some groups of women in accessing the 30 hours of funded childcare. Women working in sectors that do not adhere to the traditional 9-5 office hours, such as care, retail, and hospitality, found themselves unable to use this government funded initiative. Based on this, there is an argument to be made about the need to change the delivery of this scheme, to make it more flexible, so it can bring about fairer and more equitable outcomes. Care, retail, and hospitality are sectors more likely to offer precarious conditions with low pay and part-time hours, leaving workers more exposed to the financial pressure of inflation or any economic shocks (SWBG, 2022). As women tend to work in these sectors in high numbers, the lack of flexibility linked to the government’s childcare scheme could be doing nothing to alleviate the squeeze felt by those women already managing tight budgets. 

Share your views with us! 

We’d like to hear views from women across Scotland to understand the extent to which the current childcare system is impacting on them.  

Have your say for a chance to win a £25 voucher and help inform our work!  

We’ll also be grateful if you could support us in sharing the link to our survey on social media, so we can reach as wider audience as possible. Get involved and help us call for greater equality in decision making. 

References 

Scottish Women’s Budget Group. 2022. “Women, Work and Wealth in Scotland’s changing economy 2022”. Last accessed: 17/08/23. https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/Women-Work-Wealth-in-a-changing-economy-report.pdf