TUC Women's Conference Motion on Childcare

The TUC Women's Conference carried a composite resolution on Childcare this year. The Women's Conference is entitled to send one motion to Congress each year. The motion is chosen by a ballot. The resolution on childcare was chosen to go to Congress. ​The full text can be found below:

Composite motion 2:   Childcare

(see Motions 5, 12, 13 and 14)

Lack of affordable childcare is the most persistent and disproportionate financial disadvantage that women workers face, particularly single parents, 90% of whom are women.  The stagnant gender pay gap is in no small part due to the high costs of childcare in the UK, and the reliance of women workers on low paid, low status, part time work to meet childcare needs.

Conference is concerned by recent figures showing that the average cost of childcare has risen by 30% since 2010 and that there are now 35,000 fewer childcare places available, despite the 125,000 rise in children under 4.

Conference further notes Ofsted ratings from 2012 indicating that the most affluent areas of the country received almost twice the level of top quality childcare provision compared to the most deprived areas. There were also three times as many outstanding providers in the wealthiest areas when comparing the least and most deprived local authorities in England.

 Childcare is increasingly a major issue for all political parties in the run up to the 2015 general election. The Labour Party has guaranteed wraparound 8am-6pm childcare for primary school pupils and 25 hours free childcare. Meanwhile, government measures to give childcare tax breaks to higher earners do nothing to help those who need it most. Childcare support for those on Universal Credit is less than was previously provided via the childcare element of tax credits and is far less than the total investment made by this government in childcare relief for higher earners. According to the Resolution Foundation, under Universal Credit, a part-time cleaner with two children in childcare and working 25 hours a week would be £7 a week worse off than if she didn’t work at all.

 The “cost’’ of childcare is likely to be a high profile discussion in the run up to General Election. This conference opposes the proposals in the “More Great Childcare’’ consultation to weaken safeguarding requirements and change adult-child ratios, to narrow training opportunities and career paths for the least qualified parts of this workforce  and discourage investment in staff and to create a group of EY ‘teachers’, who are not qualified teachers, to make them cheaper to employ. 

Conference celebrates the co-ordination between trade unionists, women’s rights groups and early years education experts to achieve a U turn on the adult: child ratios. Conference asserts that affordability must be achieved through increasing wages for working parents, increasing employer contributions to childcare costs and public investment.

Conference calls for a national debate about why childcare workers, early years teachers, early years professionals and nursery staff - a mainly female workforce - continue to attract such low rates of pay and status.

Furthermore, Conference calls upon the TUC women’s committee to work with affiliates to:

1. campaign for childcare support which will benefit all parents, including those who work shifts and unsociable hours and for comprehensive policy measures geared towards the introduction of universal free childcare.
2. support the Gingerbread campaign for affordable childcare for single parents;
3. campaign for decent terms and conditions for the staff providing childcare in schools and nurseries, including adequate training and safe child/carer ratios; and
4. lobby for childcare to be at the heart of 2015’s election manifestos.
5. support unions to negotiate with employers on childcare, ensuring employees are aware of and have access to all available means of support for childcare costs and to make the case for the role of employers in supporting childcare through workplace nurseries or financial support for employees
6. examine and raise awareness of the obstacles linked to childcare that women face in the labour market; and
7. continue to campaign to defend Sure Start nurseries; and

Mover:       NUT

Seconder:          UNISON

Supporters: Community

  Accord