'The guilt, the pressure and the relentlessness': Struggles to access childcare wreaking havoc on parent's mental health and work life

'I had to ask my work to leave me on furlough as I wasn’t able to work my required hours with our pre-school only opening part-time. I have since been made redundant,' says mother-of-two

A report by Early Years Alliance found half of parents whose children are under the age of five said the government has not done enough to support parents gain access to childcare they require during the Covid-19 crisis (Getty)

Parents say not being able to get hold of childcare in the wake of the lockdown is wreaking havoc on their mental health and work life, a damning study has found.

A report by Early Years Alliance, which polled just over 2000 parents, found half of parents whose children are under the age of five said the government has not done enough to support parents gain access to childcare they require during the Covid-19 crisis.

While a third of parents said struggles to find childcare since lockdown started being lifted on 1 June has had a detrimental effect on their work and over a quarter said such problems had harmed their mental health.

The proportion of parents saying their work and mental well-being had suffered was far higher among those living in the most deprived parts of the country.

Researchers found one in ten have been unable to access any formal childcare whatsoever since lockdown started easing in spite of needing such support.

Victoria Benson, chief executive of Gingerbread, the leading single parent charity, told The Independent the study’s findings resonate particularly strongly with single parents. Some 90 per cent of single parents are female.

Ms Benson, a single parent who has been living with her six children during the coronavirus emergency, said: “I had no childcare this summer and none in the lockdown. I’m pretty desperate for them to go back to school next week. For my mental health and for their mental health. There is the guilt, the pressure and the relentlessness of looking after your children constantly in the summer holidays and in lockdown. For me, the difficulty is juggling work and looking after them.

“We are hearing from single parents who are getting no sympathy from employers who want them back at work. They have used up all their parental and annual leave and they have very little choice but to quit. Single parents usually rely on a patchwork of formal childcare from school, after school clubs, nurseries, and childminders, but many childcare providers aren’t providing their usual services.

"This is worse over the summer. Many of the summer playschemes you would normally use haven’t reopened. I normally use play schemes but I haven’t been able to this year because ones in my area prioritise key worker’s children and disabled children and have also a reduced number they can take because of social distancing.”

Ms Benson said being a single parent is relentless as you do not get a break from your children – adding that previous studies have shown flexible, affordable childcare is the single biggest “enabler or blocker” from single parents entering the workplace.

Studies demonstrate women often shoulder the burden of high childcare costs and it is more frequently mothers who stop working to care for youngsters.

There are more than two million families in England who have children aged under five – with some 87 per cent of them using some type of formal childcare, according to government data.

All children have been permitted to attend nurseries, pre-schools and childminders in England since 1 June but around a third of providers were yet to open their doors ahead of the summer holidays. This is due to a dearth of sufficient financial support from government and new safety measures in the wake of the global pandemic.

Roberta Mitchell, who lives in Kettering with a two-year-old and a four-year-old, said: “People have been expected to go back to work without the required care in place or facing reduced hours.

"I had to ask my work to leave me on furlough as I wasn’t able to work my required hours with our pre-school only opening part-time. I have since been made redundant and I feel that my inability to return to work could have contributed to this.”

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, which represents, nurseries, pre-schools, and registered childminders, said: “It is clear that much more needs to be done to ensure that the parents of young children are able to access the childcare they need. For this to happen, the government simply must provide greater financial support to the early years’ sector so that nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are able to keep their doors opens and provide the care and education that families rely on.

“With a quarter of providers fearing closure by next year, this situation is only going to get worse unless the government takes urgent action. As such, we urge the chancellor to use the upcoming Spending Review as an opportunity to commit to the investment that the early years needs to survive the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. The alternative is a sector that may never recover from the impact of the pandemic, and hundreds of thousands of parents left without the support they need at the time they need it most.”

Tulip Siddiq, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Children and Early Years, raised concerns about the report’s findings as she argued childcare forms a critical component of the economic recovery and "children’s life chances”.

Ms Siddiq added: “Yet the sector is on the brink of collapse after years of underfunding. Having failed to ensure that childcare was available for many key workers at the height of the pandemic, the government is now asking parents to return to work without sufficient childcare support. This incompetence is putting working families in an impossible position and threatening jobs at a critical time for children and the economy.

“Labour has repeatedly called for targeted financial support to save the nurseries and childminders that families rely on – now the government must listen.”

Lauren Balasco, a marketing manager who lives in Bristol with her two-year-old, said her son would not be getting his place back at nursery until September as a result of waiting lists and staff numbers.

Victor Gazis, a father to a three-year-old and a five-year-old who lives in Exeter, said he was working around the clock to juggle childcare and work.

He said: “We are two parents working from home with a five-year-old on summer holidays and a three-year-old in nursery just two days a week. We have no other childcare options so our sons are basically doing stuff on their own until we have a break. We start work at 6am, spend time with our sons in the afternoon, then work until 11-12pm.”

Melissa Crossley, who lives in Manchester with her one-year-old and a four-year-old, said: “Our children attend nursery two days a week and the other two days I work we used to be able to utilise family, as this option has now been taken away from us due to social distancing between households and in Greater Manchester, not being able to mix households.

“We are also currently unable to access further nursery time for our children due to lack of places at our current nursery, and the financial impact it would have on our family on having two children in nearly full-time childcare. If this situation continues we may have to make a decision to take a massive financial hit on our family either by one of us leaving employment for the children, or paying over double for childcare"