Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Covid-19: Childcare

Wednesday 25 November 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The Government have introduced 30 hours of free childcare for eligible working parents of three and four-year-olds.
  • We have ensured that the childcare sector has been able to stay open to support parents to continue to work.
  • We are investing 1 billion from 2021 to help create more high-quality, wraparound childcare.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Paul Blomfield Lab
Women & Equalities Children & Families
Context

The question is prompted by concerns over childcare access and support for working parents, particularly women, during the pandemic.

Question

What steps she is taking to support women returning to work to access childcare during the covid-19 outbreak. The Government have introduced 30 hours of free childcare for eligible working parents of three and four-year-olds. However, recent data has shown that 67% of women with children are likely to quit their job compared to just 16% of fathers.

Answer from Paul Scully

The Government have introduced 30 hours of free childcare for eligible working parents of three and four-year-olds. We have ensured that the childcare sector has been able to stay open to support parents to continue to work. We are investing £1 billion from 2021 to help create more high-quality, wraparound and holiday childcare places, both before and after school.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific ask for additional measures beyond existing policies was not addressed directly with new commitments or timelines.

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Q2 Paul Blomfield Lab
Women & Equalities Children & Families
Context

The question is prompted by concerns over childcare access and support for working parents, particularly women, during the pandemic. Recent data shows a significant disparity in job quitting rates between men and women.

Question

The Prime Minister has urged everybody who can do so to work at home until April, and obviously many people have been doing that for the past eight months, but childcare responsibilities are still falling largely on women. As a result, recent data has shown that 67% of women with children—compared with just 16% of fathers—are likely to quit their job because they cannot balance childcare with work. The Minister talked about the action that the Government are taking, as did the Minister for Women and Equalities earlier, but it is clearly not working, so what more will the Government do to reset this imbalance?

Answer from Paul Scully

The Government have introduced 30 hours of free childcare for eligible working parents of three and four-year-olds. We have ensured that the childcare sector has been able to stay open to support parents to continue to work. We are investing £1 billion from 2021 to help create more high-quality, wraparound and holiday childcare places, both before and after school.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific ask for addressing gender disparity in job quitting rates was not directly addressed with new commitments or timelines.

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