UPDATED: Mothers’ preferences over childcare and work. Why won’t anyone listen to the 3 million mums?

Daniel Lilley, 10 May 2023

Daniel Lilley, September 2023

• There are an estimated 2.9 million working mothers in England with children aged 0-15 who would prefer to work fewer hours to spend more time with their children, equivalent to 60% of all working mothers with children aged 0-15.
• DfE data suggests that almost 4 in 10 (37%) working mothers with children aged 0-4 would give up work completely to look after their children if they could afford it, equivalent to 700,000 women.
• About 29% of working mothers with children aged 0-4 (554,000) would prefer to work more hours if they could arrange ‘good quality childcare which was convenient, affordable and reliable’.
• Two thirds (67%) of working mothers with children aged 0-4 would like to work fewer hours if they could afford it in order to look after their children, equivalent to 1.28 million women.
• Almost half a million (411,000) mothers of children aged 0-4 who are not employed would prefer to go out to work if they could find good quality childcare which was convenient, affordable and reliable, equivalent to half (54%) of non-working mothers with children aged 0-4.

Summary

• There are 2.9 million women with children aged 0 to 4 in England, according to most recent Office for National Statistics^[1] estimates.
• 1.9 million, or 71 per cent, of these mothers are employed, and just under 760,000, or 29 per cent, aren’t.
• Of these 1.9 million employed mothers, roughly half work part-time and half work full-time.
• These figures mean that the underlying population of mothers of under 4s who are employed is an estimated two and a half times larger than that of mothers of under 4s who aren’t.
• The Department for Education^[2] conducts a large-scale annual survey of mothers and their attitudes to childcare. This survey requires mothers to assume childcare is ‘good quality, convenient, affordable and reliable’. As a consequence, it gives a potentially unrealistic and biased view of attitudes to childcare.
• Using this unrealistic assumption, a maximum of 966,000 mothers of children aged 0 to 4 would prefer to work more than they currently do. 1.28 million mothers of children aged 0-4 would prefer to work less, if they could afford to do so, a third more (33 per cent) than would prefer to increase their working hours.
• The Centre for Social Justice found in 2022 that almost twice as many parents would like an entitlement to a ‘childcare budget’ allowing them to spend it as they wish, with 61 per cent in support, compared to 33 per cent in support of direct entitlements for care at nurseries and childcare providers.^[3]
• This research uses England-only data as childcare policy is a devolved issue, meaning that the devolved nations of the United Kingdom each set their own childcare policy.^[4]

Mothers with dependent children aged 0-4 years

The Office for National Statistics^[5] provides estimates for the number of women with dependent children aged 0 to 2 years and 3 to 4 years and provides estimates for the proportions of each group that are employed, separating for full-time and part-time work, unemployed and economically inactive. These figures allow us to derive an estimated (to the nearest thousand).

• 2,673,000 women with dependent children aged 0-4.
• 1,911,000 women with dependent children aged 0-4 that are employed.
• 872,000 women with dependent children aged 0-4 that are employed full-time.
• 944,000 women with dependent children aged 0-4 that are employed part-time.
• 762,000 women with dependent children aged 0-4 that are not employed.

There are an estimated 6.3 million women with dependent children aged 15 or under, 4.8 million of these women are employed and 1.5 million are not employed. Of the 4.8 million who are employed, roughly half are employed full-time (2.3 million).

It should be noted that these figures do not sum perfectly as each was estimated using ONS data. There is a small margin for error, as is always the case in estimating such large sums.

Department for Education Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents

The Department for Education survey^[6] evaluates mothers’ preferences over work and childcare with four questions where mothers respond on a scale from ‘strongly agree’ to strongly disagree’. The first three are asked to all employed mothers of children aged 0 to 4, and the fourth to mothers of children aged 0 to 4 who are not employed.

Using ONS data on the employment status of mothers in England, we are able to convert the DfE survey data of mothers into national estimates for the number of working mothers who would like to work more, less or not at all, and the number of non-working mothers who could be persuaded to work with good quality childcare that is convenient, reliable and affordable.

Mothers of children aged 0-4 years

• ‘If I could afford to give up my work, I would prefer to stay at home and look after my children’. 37 per cent agreed, this is an estimated 700,000 mothers.
• ‘If I could afford it, I would work fewer hours so I could spend more time looking after my children’. 67 per cent agreed, this is an estimated 1.28 million mothers.
• ‘If I could arrange good quality childcare which was convenient, reliable and affordable, I would work more hours’. 29 per cent agreed, this is an estimated 554,000 mothers.
• ‘If I could arrange good quality childcare which was convenient, reliable and affordable, I would prefer to go out to work’. 54 per cent agreed, this is an estimated 411,000 mothers.

The responses to these present a clear message from mothers over childcare and work. There are far more women who would like to work fewer hours or not at all if they could afford it than there are who would like to work more if they could afford it.

It is worth noting that the nature of the question potentially inflates the number of mothers who might wish to work more. The question asks mothers to consider childcare that is good quality, convenient, affordable and reliable.

Appendix A details the complete corresponding survey results. The age groupings do not correspond perfectly; however, we can estimate as below:

Mothers of children aged 0-15 years^[7]

• ‘If I could afford to give up my work, I would prefer to stay at home and look after my children’. 32 per cent agreed, this is an estimated 1.5-1.6 million mothers.
• ‘If I could afford it, I would work fewer hours so I could spend more time looking after my children’. 60 per cent agreed, this is an estimated 2.8-2.9 million mothers.
• ‘If I could arrange good quality childcare which was convenient, reliable and affordable, I would work more hours’. 26 per cent agreed, this is an estimated 1.2-1.3 million mothers.
• ‘If I could arrange good quality childcare which was convenient, reliable and affordable, I would prefer to go out to work’. 49 per cent agreed, this is an estimated 700,000-750,000 mothers.

Onward survey

The think tank Onward commissioned J.L Partners to poll 1,037 parents of children under five in October 2022. The results found that parents were largely supportive of children being looked after by their parents, rather than entering formal childcare.

• 61 per cent of parents said that ‘if money were no object, they would prefer themselves or their partner to stay at home and look after their children instead of going out to work’.^[8]
• When parents were asked whether ‘It is better for a child to spend time primarily with a parent until their second birthday’ or ‘It is better for a child to attend formal childcare as soon as they are able’, the majority of parents (60 per cent) agreed it was better for a child to spend time primarily with their parent until their second birthday.
• Mothers were particularly in favour of this – with 64 per cent agreeing ‘it is better for a child to spend time primarily with a parent until they turn two’.^[9]
• A similar proportion of parents agreed that ‘It is better for a child to spend time primarily with a parent until their second birthday’ – with 67 per cent of mothers and 62 per cent of parents overall agreeing with the statement.
• Fewer than three in 10 (28 per cent) of parents thought it was ‘better for parents to work and for their child to enter formal childcare’.^[10]

Centre for Social Justice survey

The Centre for Social Justice survey replicated this result. They found that

• 78 per cent of parents with children aged 0-4 agreed that they would like to spend more time with their child, but cannot afford to (80 per cent of women and 76 per cent of men).
• 44 per cent of parents of young children (aged 0-4) would like to stop working altogether and 47 per cent would like to reduce their hours to spend more time with their children if they could afford it.
• If finances were not an issue, 49 per cent of parents of children aged 0-4 said they would prefer for themselves or their partner to take care of their child on their own, whereas only 19 per cent of parents currently do so. ^[11]

Source: Department for Education, Childcare and early years survey of parents, Reporting Year 2021 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk), November 2022 update, Table 8.12

[1] ONS, Families and the labour market, UK: 2021 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), 22 July 2022, Table 1a

[2] Department for Education, Childcare and early years survey of parents, Reporting Year 2021 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk), November 2022 update, Table 8.12

[3] CSJ, Parents know best :Giving families a choice in childcare (centreforsocialjustice.org.uk), 2022, p16

[4] ONS, Families and the labour market, UK: 2021 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), 22 July 2022, Table 1a

[5] Department for Education, Childcare and early years survey of parents, Reporting Year 2021 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk), November 2022 update, Table 8.12

[6] The population figures are for mothers of children aged 0-15 years, whilst the survey was of mothers of children aged 0-14 years, a large margin for error has been offered throughout to allow for this.

[7] Onward, ‘First Steps: Fixing our broken childcare system’, https://www.ukonward.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Onward-First-Steps-Version-1.pdf p26.

[8] Onward, ‘First Steps: Fixing our broken childcare system’, https://www.ukonward.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Onward-First-Steps-Version-1.pdf p28.

[9] Onward, ‘First Steps: Fixing our broken childcare system’, https://www.ukonward.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Onward-First-Steps-Version-1.pdf p28-29.

[10] CSJ, Parents know best :Giving families a choice in childcare (centreforsocialjustice.org.uk), 2022, p16

[11] Ibid.