5. Debate on the Equality and Social Justice Committee Report: 'Minding the future: The childcare barrier facing working parents'

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:29 pm on 30 March 2022.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 4:29, 30 March 2022

Thank you very much for everybody's contributions; it's been a really rich debate. Sam Rowlands, thank you for your participation in our inquiry. Certainly, there's an important role for grandparents. If they're too decrepit to get down on the floor, which is what you need in early years, then, of course, there's a very important role for them helping children read in school. But there really is a role for anybody who is child focused to get stuck in with the very early children.

Sioned emphasised the terrible impact of the gender pay gap, which is largely, as Chwarae Teg says, down to the lack of childcare. And obviously, you were arguing for the gold standard, that we should have childcare for every child from the age of one. And that, of course, is what we must aspire to, but it's taken Sweden since the 1970s to get where they are today and we can only move forward in bite-sized chunks, frankly.

Sioned, you also emphasised the importance of expanding Flying Start and asking about where it's going to be targeted. Is it, for example, going to be targeted at pockets of poverty not covered by Flying Start, which I know the Deputy Minister has always had a bit of a focus on? 

It's very useful to hear from Huw Irranca-Davies, who previously had this role in Government. Of course, the very early years—. Children start learning from birth. You've only got to see the way the photographs capture it—these birth photos, with the child looking at the mother. That is communication and that is when it starts. So, I think a very important point made by Huw Irranca, which is that there's no financial advantage to opening up provision in areas of disadvantage, and that is where the state has to intervene, if the market is not working. Clearly, we need to ensure that those who are doing a really valuable role in the private and community sectors are able to do it.

Laura Anne Jones—absolutely no apologies for contributing to this. We're not talking to ourselves; we are talking to the whole Senedd. This is something we all need to pay attention to, because the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education evidence is absolutely clear, and that was published in 2004: preschool education really does make a difference in terms of disadvantage, and that is what we need to do. So, childcare for under-threes is absolutely essential.

Jane Dodds, you also went for gold in terms of wanting childcare from when maternity leave ends, but also pointing out that the current childcare offer excludes those who are not working or where you have a two-parent household where one is not working. 

Sarah, you reflected the struggles of your constituents—the students, people on low pay—for whom childcare is the biggest hurdle, and people who work to fund their childcare. And then Carolyn Thomas—what a brilliant contribution—your lived experience of exactly that, having to just earn enough money to fund the childcare. That is the destiny of most people on below-average earnings. It is not possible, in general terms, to work unless you've got handy grandparents or other members of the family who are prepared to assist you. And I think you also reflected the struggle of the voluntary sector, of having to fundraise for the wages, for the costs, for the supplies. This is so important. 

And then, Julie Morgan, thank you very much for welcoming our report. There's obviously a huge amount of unanswered questions that we'll need to come back to. For example, the childcare for two-year-olds—is this early education or is it childcare? Because that's absolutely crucial. For my own part, I think it should be early education, because that is what's going to benefit the child and, at the end of the day, there really are three things, I think, the three Cs—