The politics of childcare

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Women workers at Ford Dagenham vote to accept equal pay settlement Equal Pay Act in which they expansion in. 25 years was facilities: settled for a position midway immediately superceded by the between the demands of the Tory cuts of 1973!

A year later and the Labour compared with 300,000 massive expansion of nursery lous as it seemed to many at worthwhile improvement in government rushed through the 1972. But this plan-the first provision-including day care the time, missed out one vital existent provision will require Statistics show that only 5% of all economically active people in this country are married men with two children and a wife not On the other hand the 1971 census revealed that there were 515,000 single parent households, in which there are four times as many women single parents than there are men.

In a rational' society where one third of the female labour force are responsible for children the need for provision of child care would be taken for granted.

Necessity

In 1971, over 3,000,000 working women in Britain were responsible or ine care ‚oi ªL1… alam children under 16; of these, 588,600 women had children under five.

These working mothers-of whom nearly a third work full time-have 821,000 children under five.

The rate of increase in employment for mothers of under-fives has been greater than 1A11IC4 WULL than fari n11 marriad under 60. This is because of economic necessity.

The dilemma women found themselves in was expressed in many ways-organising in the trade unions and labour movement and the women's liberation movement, and, for others, sucide, depression, chuaren taken into care.

The movement emerged in the late sixties with small women's groups starting in different parts of the country. The Women's Liberation Workshop was established in 1969 as a coordinating centre for these groups.

The local groups began meeting to read, talk and share their experiences as women.

In February 1970 the first and only women's liberation conference was held and attended by 600 women. At the conference it was agreed that the WLM should press for four minimum demands.

1) Equal pay for equal work.

2) Equal job and educational opportunities.

3) Free contraception and abortion on demand.

4) Free 24 hour child. care facilities. employers and the demands of The demands of the TUC have to be seen in the context that it had been nominally campaigning for equal pay for equal work since 1888!

A month later in June 1970 Labour lost the general election and women were accused of being the contributing factor in electing Heath and the orles.

In 1972 the Tories seemed aware of women's demands for more nursery provision and presented their White Paper, 'Education, a Framework for Expansion' This proposed to provide part time (again!) provision for 75% of four year olds and 35% of three year olds by the early 1980s.

A £30 million building programme was allocated to local authorities in the year 197475.

This : would have meant 700,000 full time places The Finer Report of 1974produced when the attack was on again-revealed that nearly two-thirds of a million parents were looking after one million children single handed by reasons of death, divorce, separation or birth outside of marriage.

'Normal' family

One-parent families were seen as a mutilated form of the 'normal' family. The Finer Report in its recommendations aimed to remove the economic disabilities of one parent families within the structure of present family relationships.

The determination of the bourgeois state to support and retain the family unit is also connected with developing attitudes to child care.

The Labour Government was re-elected in 1974 and the election manifesto promised The government, aware of the need to hold women's vote for the second general election that year (elected as a minority government) plans were made for legislation that would particularly appeal to women and which had been demanded from women within the trade union and Labour movement.

The legislation included the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 which would make it illegal to be discriminated against on the basis of sex:

Yet important areas were excluded from this legislationlike tax, pensions and the whole area of social security.

The Employment Protection Act 1977 gave women minimum paid maternity leave and the right to reinstatement after the birth. The Equal Pay Act of 1970, although on the statute book for five years was only in 1975 enforced as 'law' Missed out All this legislation, marvelingredient: an expansion of nursery facilities. In reality what was happening was a continuance of the attacks started by the Tories. . Wilson had added to the problems by recommending that councils should accept children into primary schools in the term after they became five. This was carried out eagerly by both Tory and Labour controlled councils and had the effect of increasing the pressure on already inadequate nursery provision.

The Labour government also continued to cut back on nursery building from £39 million in 1975-6 to a mere £5 million for 1979-81, a cut of 87%!

Not opened So huge were the cuts that many local'authorities were not even taking up building grants to finance new nurseries since they then faced the expenses of statting and maintaining them.

In some areas, including Birmingham and Gloucestershire newly built nursery facilities were not being opened because councils would not pay the wages of the staff.

Gloucestershire eventually opened their centres with one trained staff in each one, and relying on voluntary help (the fundraising is mandatory!) from mothers.

Meanwhile, what were the other defenders of the working class-the trade unions and the TUC-doing while this attack was being carried out?

A working party was set up on The Under Fives which produced a 127 page report, published in 1978.

Recommendations

Its terms of reference were to conduct such an investigation and recommend means of extending provision for the But in drawing up its recommendations, the working party concentrated on what should be, rather than what was likely to be achieved under the existing Labour leadership:

"We are well aware that a service such as we shall be récommending and indeed any were increasingly forced to slot into three types of shiftsdouble day shift, night shift and Sunday work.

Childminders

The TUC Report also shows that from a mere 500 play. groups in 1965 the figure had mushroomed to 10,000 in 1976, not including those organised by charities such as Save the Children Fund and the NSPCC.

In 1975 there were nearly 30,000 registered childminders, with a further 500,000 children estimated to be in the care of unregistered minders.

The cheapness of this system for employers and the statechildminders are paid by the individual parents-means that the government has encouraged it.

The Report states:

"The inadequacies of childminding are glaring and deplorable, and therefore it is highly irresponsible to base child care programmes on an expansion of this facility."

NUPE's views on childminders, whom they are meant to organise but never have, is that they should be paid a £30 wage provided by the local education authority and a 40 hour week and that minders will provide a bank of labour for a future?) nursery system."

The Lambeth child minding scheme like others of its kind provided by "progressive? councils was to pay child minders £6.75 per child minded per week which the council recouped from each parent of a minded child as a means-tested fee. Minders and clients suffer from the same exploitationlow pay.

"Consultative"

The TUC Report in the light of all the evidence makes a long series of "major" and other recommendations, though it is stressed that the document is only a "consultative" document.

The introduction to the Report states that:

"They (the TUC) will give consideration to action on the Report's recommendations after it has been considered and discussed. throughout the movement...

The reality is that it hasn't received the discussion warranted (not from want of trying by many in the trade unions). One of the difficulties is now that the Report is out of print. The consideration for action on the recommendations therefore remains in the bureaucrats' files.

Meanwhile the attack continues but not without some response from those it affects most-the women and parents who need the provision, the workers employed in child care about to lose their jobs.

Continued next week

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February 1980