Parents reported being made redundant after being unable to access childcare, or having to combine work and childcare in exhausting 18-hour shifts.
The Early Years Alliance, which conducted the research, is calling on the Government to provide an emergency rescue package for the childcare sector in England after it found that one in ten of the more than 2,000 respondents revealed that they have not been able to access formal childcare at all since the easing of lockdown.
Roberta Mitchell, a mother of two early years children from Kettering, 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.’
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