Thank you for contacting me about support for working mums and for highlighting the need to urgently improve our childcare sector. 

I’m not a mum myself but it is painfully obvious how difficult working parents have it, and how much harder and more expensive the childcare situation has gotten over recent years.  The system, as you say, also totally reinforces the woman as the primary carer which contributes to the gender pay gap and wider gender inequality we see everywhere in our society.

Frankly, the Government has ignored this issue for years and this negligence has created a childcare system that is not working for families, for the people who work in the sector or for the economy when childcare costs are high, and some parents, often women, are faced with the choice of having to leave work altogether. 

I absolutely agree that the Government’s proposal of increasing the number of two-year-olds a member of staff can look after in childcare is not the answer parents want. Not only does this risk reducing the quality of care without lowering fees, but it also fails to address issues with availability, standards and staffing.

Therefore, I have been supporting calls for a complete transformation in how childcare is delivered from the end of parental leave to the start of secondary school. I want Ministers to make it easier for councils to open new maintained nurseries, and I am very proud of the ambitious Children’s Recovery Plan that we set out at this year’s Labour Conference. 

This includes our commitment to introducing free breakfast clubs and extracurricular activities for every child, major reform of the funding of childcare, quality mental health support delivered by trained professionals within schools, ongoing training and development for teachers, and targeted investment for children who struggled most with lockdown. This will go some way to reduce the strain on our childcare services and parents; but I know it’s only part of the picture.

Flexible working makes a huge difference for those who want to stay in work, and it should be a default right for all workers from day one on the job. I am disappointed the Government has repeatedly failed to deliver on its commitment to promote flexible working through an Employment Bill, which was promised three years ago.  We need to see this right made clear and parental leave expanded so that parents can share their leave if they wish and that flexible working is a much more accepted practice.

The Labour Party is preparing to write its manifesto ahead of the next General Election and I can assure you that these issues and more will be at the heart of it.  We know that in order to grow our economy and to distribute the wealth we create fairly, that the workplace and childcare require a dramatic overhaul.  You can read more about our plans for workers’ rights here and I look forward to us announcing more ahead of the next election.