Parents’ fears for future of childcare

A childcare service described as being vital in allowing parents to work is under threat of closure – which could leave families who depend on it “facing an abyss”.

The Stepping Stones sitter service in Glasgow has traditionally bridged the gap left by nurseries, childminders and after-school clubs for parents whose jobs require them to work shifts such as early mornings, evenings or weekends. Without it, says one support group, many parents would be unable to work and would have no option but to live on benefits.

Neighbouring authorities have recognised the essential nature of  the service – but in Glasgow it faces imminent closure unless funding  is secured.

Stepping Stones was originally funded through the Scottish Government’s Working For Families initiative (WFF), whereby government money was channelled through local authorities. This cash used to be ring-fenced, but the Scottish Government’s concordat with councils means they are now free to use such money according to their own priorities.

Glasgow chose to end the funding last year. Although Stepping Stones used its reserves to carry on, it needs to find £75,000 if it is to continue in the city after March.

Local authorities in Glasgow and Renfrewshire originally provided joint funding for the service across the two areas, and Renfrewshire has committed its share for the 2010-2011 financial year. North Lanarkshire has said it will consider a renewed tender when the present one runs out in March, while in South Ayrshire Stepping Stones can continue: the council contracts the service on a case-by-case basis and it is cross-subsidised by providing a commercial service to a hotel.

Sue Robertson, director of the support charity One Parent Families Scotland, said the closure of the Stepping Stones sitter service in Glasgow would leave parents “facing an abyss”.

She added: “It does seem bizarre, when people are looking strategically at combining services across the west of Scotland, that a central part of childcare services will not be available in Glasgow but [is] possible in Renfrewshire and North Lanarkshire.

“Because Stepping Stones used [their] reserves to fund this year,
they are no longer on anyone’s radar in Glasgow.”

Sharon Bonar, 29, is required to work early-morning shifts in her job as a ticket inspector with ScotRail. She started using the Stepping Stones childcare service two years ago when her son Marco was three.

“It means he can get up at a normal time,” she explains. “The sitter arrives before I leave the house at 6.15am, and gets him up and dressed and takes him to school.

“If the service ends I would probably have to give up my job, because childminders don’t want to take children that early in the morning.”

Stepping Stones has been providing childcare services in Glasgow for 21 years, but its eight family centres have been reduced to just one, in Possilpark, as a result of previous funding cuts. With no grant from Glasgow City Council last year, it has cut the service it provides from 200 hours a week to fewer than 40. Now, with no confirmation of funding for the next financial year either, its most optimistic forecast is that it will be able to continue for a couple of months after the financial year finishes at the end of March.

Audrey Smith, who works both early-morning and late-evening shifts in a care home, is another user of the sitter service. “I would try to carry
on working up to the summer holidays, but then I’d be scuppered,” she explains.

“I’ve always worked and I hate the idea of not working, but I understand some single parents being better off on benefits because it is so difficult to find a job that fits in with children. I took this job because it is 25 hours a week, which gives me some time to be a parent to my 10-year-old son.

“Stepping Stones provides the equivalent of a nanny service because it is in your own home. I pay £9 an hour for it because it is subsidised, but if I had to pay the full cost I would be better off not working.

“It is far more than a babysitting service. The sitters get involved in activities and supervise homework. I love my job and just want to continue with it until my son is older and I can explore other avenues in the caring sector.”

Isobel Lawson, chief executive of Stepping Stones, says: “Once people have to give up a job to go back on benefits, they will think very carefully before taking on a new one. We have terminated some posts, including a financial adviser who helped
families with budgeting, and a family support worker.”

Lone parents in Renfrewshire are expecting that the service will continue. Stuart Horne, whose nine-year-old son James has serious behavioural problems requiring medication, gave up a long-hours job as a catering manager so he could spend more time with his son, but still needs experienced care for him until he gets home from work.

Two workers were assigned to cope with James’s needs. The care is subsidised but Mr Horne still pays £180 for nine hours of childcare, which he manages through Child Tax Credit and Disability Living Allowance for James. Without this combination of help, he says, “I would have to give up work and lose my house”.

From last October, lone parents whose children were aged 10 or above moved from Income Support to Jobseeker’s Allowance, which provides advice on training and childcare services. Regulations are now changing to allow lone parents to look for part-time work to fit school hours – but in the experience of Stepping Stones and One Parent Families Scotland, which provides its own sitter service in the south of Glasgow, most of the available jobs involve unsocial hours in call centres, retail or catering, meaning childcare is still a stumbling block.

A recent report on child poverty  by Save The Children warned that progress has slid into reverse, with 13% of children in the UK and 95,000 children in Scotland living in families which earn less than half the average income. It suggests that families just below the poverty line have made the most progress in moving into work, while the most disadvantaged, including single parents, find it most difficult.

“Welfare to work” is the keystone of the current UK Government’s drive to eradicate child poverty in Britain by 2020. But it is only possible for lone parents to take on a job if there is someone to look after their children.

The original WFF funding was allocated as a result of demographic profiling. Glasgow, one of the areas where the approach was piloted, received substantial funding.

In Dundee, the first sitter service was established in 1998 using money from the Childcare Partnership. It generates additional income through a mobile creche. In Aberdeenshire, where 46 staff provide childcare to people in isolated rural homes, the Childcare Partnership and agreement with the social work department guarantee funds.