A major plank of the Government's social policy has been to get people, particularly lone parents, into work. However, a survey conducted for the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) reveals that one in five carers - whom the Government defines as people aged between 16 and 64 providing unpaid help for sick, disabled or elderly adults - have had to give up or turn down a job because of their family responsibilities.
Government initiatives have also sought to create accessible and affordable childcare places. But for many they are not accessible - with only one place for every four children aged under eight. And they are not affordable - UK parents are still expected to fork out 75 per cent of the costs of a nursery place, while many of their European counterparts pay only 30 per cent.
There has been a consensus among a wide range of organisations on the need for family-friendly working practices and affordable childcare to help the 12 million parents and seven million carers.
Now the EOC has brought these like-minded organisations together to give their argument political clout in the form of the Parents' and Carers'
Coalition. And, according to the EOC survey, they could be a significant factor at the next election, with 68 per cent of all adults saying that a commitment to help parents and carers would be likely to influence the way they vote.
The survey, which involved interviews with 1,821 parents and 470 carers out of a representative sample of 4,740 adults of working age, followed by telephone interviews with 1,005 adults, also showed that 79 per cent of parents and 74 per cent of carers said they would be likely to be swayed by a party which promised to introduce family-friendly policies.
Flexible working
With four out of ten mothers, more than one in ten fathers and one in five carers leaving work or unable to take up a job because of their caring responsibilities, the campaign for the right to flexible working was a major demand from focus groups involved in the EOC survey. It found that 89 per cent of parents and carers, and 83 per cent of all those surveyed, wanted the right to flexible hours.
Gill Keep, campaigns manager of the National Family and Parenting Institute and author of a report entitled Making Britain Family Friendly, says that employees should have a right to flexible working and not simply, as is currently the case, the right to ask their employer if they can work flexible hours. Employers are under no obligation to grant their staff's request; they 'can just say it damages business', says Ms Keep.
However, the EOC report indicates the opposite. It found that 76 per cent of employers who had already set up flexible working and leave arrangements said there had been no set-up costs, and a further 71 per cent reported no ongoing costs.
'Since offering support beyond the statutory minimum, those employers reported a 49 per cent increase in productivity, a 48 per cent reduction in absenteeism and a 47 per cent improvement in recruitment,' the EOC states.
The RAC motoring service has reported an 8 per cent rise in productivity by allowing its staff to work flexibly, while the HSBC bank has seen the number of women returning to work after having babies almost treble.
Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, says that one fifth of the staff employed by her organisation split their working week between home and the office. 'If you have the technology and are clear about outcomes and management processes, it works well,' she comments.
Childcare costs
Support for more resources to ensure the provision of affordable childcare was overwhelming in the EOC survey. More than seven out of 10 adults agreed that the Government should help with childcare costs for working parents and should also provide money so parents could spend more time at home during a child's first year.
Margaret Creear of Gingerbread, which campaigns on behalf of single parents, says, 'Although the Government has made many strides forward, there is a lot still to do. We still hear from our lone parent members that they have difficulty accessing childcare, either because there simply isn't any in their area or they cannot afford the contribution of at least 70 per cent that parents must make.'
Judith Thompson, who chairs the trustees of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, says, 'We are going to have to have more investment, because good-quality childcare is costly and can't be met out of parental contributions. The burden of care should not be borne by individuals and particularly not by women, because we know their chances are affected permanently by this.'
The EOC report says a shortage of childcare staff is undermining the Government's aim to create one million new childcare places by the end of 2004 and a further 250,000 places by 2006. It states, 'Achieving these targets would mean recruiting 180,000 new childcare workers. Yet low pay and low status are causing serious recruitment and retention problems in the industry.'
'Sandwich' generation
Underpinning the Parents' and Carers' Coalition's demands for a better deal for parents and carers is a substantial demographic change - people are living longer and more women are choosing to have children when they are older.
The result, according to the EOC report, is that for the first time there are more over-60s than under-16s. It found that 40 per cent of carers aged between 16 and 64 also had children aged nought to 15 in their household, and 'many are experiencing difficulties associated with being both a parent and a carer'. Significantly, many NHS childcare co-ordinators are also marketing themselves as 'carer co-ordinators' because of this overlap.
Stephen Burke, director of the Daycare Trust, says those in 'the sandwich generation' - they have caring responsibilities both for children and for older relatives - need additional help. This view is echoed by Gill Keep, who refers to the advent of the 'beanpole family', where there are more generations alive because people are living longer, and less 'lateral growth' of the family as women are having children later.
Gill Keep says, 'Given that the age when women are choosing to have their first child is rising and the population is ageing, women in particular are going to find themselves looking after elderly relatives as well as looking after relatively young children. This has not been the case in the past.'
EOC chairwoman Julie Mellor says the Government should recognise that the unpaid work that parents and carers do has been valued at around 277 billion. She says, 'It's time that politicians recognised the essential contribution parents and carers make to society and committed themselves to investing heavily in giving them the support they need.'