Hope O

The cost of childcare plays a huge part in decisions I make daily. There just isn’t enough childcare around, and the prices are ridiculously expensive. My 9-year old goes to a school a bit far from home. He is currently getting assessed for ADHD and autism so there is no way I can allow him to go to school or come home on his own as he’s not safe to do so. Even if he wasn’t getting assessed I personally think he is still too young to make his own way home. We used to use the school's only afterschool club, but they were money hungry business. If payment was late, they would add a fine into my bill. I even asked them to allow me to pay on the 9th when my universal credit came in, but they refused. They wanted payment on the 1st of each month and threatened to take my space away from me, and give to someone else who could pay on time.

The stress of that made me find a childminder but, again, the childminder looked after babies and toddlers - not 9-year olds. She was good but also pricey. Most childminders aren’t registered with the care inspectorate so don’t have registration numbers so I can’t claim some of my childcare costs from universal credit. I have now been given a month’s notice that my childminder is stopping childminding and I’m panicking as to what to do now. I work until 6pm. I feel like lots of money and emphasis have gone into nurseries and early primary education to ‘give children the best start in life,’ but that all gets lost by the time children reach upper school and secondary school. There’s nothing for them to do unless they are from a well-off family. I’m not sure if the government expects kids from 8, 9, and 10 upwards to just have the key to their houses and fend for themselves, but I feel this is why we have young people becoming nuisances - hanging around parks, streets, and public buses, causing trouble… There’s nothing for them to do. And if there is, it costs a fortune. I mentioned in the past how, over the holidays, unless you can afford £40 a day to put your child into a holiday club, you're stuck. I found a club in an 'area of deprivation' nearby that runs free clubs, but they’re only on from 10 to 2, which means I can’t work. Which means that over the summer holidays, I have no income, as my job is term-time, so I’m forced to sign on at the job centre.

I’m not sure why there aren’t more childcare options that are affordable for older children. I feel that if there were, it would be less of a worry for single parents like me, knowing my child is safe while I work. Anyways, back to next month. My childminder is retiring from childminding, so that means frantically searching for a registered one who’s willing to collect my son from his school at 3 p.m. Alternatively I’ll need to stop working. I spend sometimes as much as £380 a month on childcare, and that’s only from 3pm until 6pm (less if there’s school holidays) - that’s a lot of money. I look at countries like Sweeden and Denmark, where childcare and parental/maternity leave etc seems to be better.

During the daytime, I am a carer for my siblings, who are vulnerable adults, after my parents passed away. It’s not as if I don’t want to work—I just can’t. And if I do work, then it all seems to disappear on childcare, gas, electric bills, arrears, bank overdrafts, etc., leaving me standing in a queue at the food bank weekly, trying to make ends meet. I love my children. However, if I knew then what I know now about how expensive things are… (sigh). For now, I will continue to struggle on, though having all these resources ploughed into early childhood (birth-5) and then stopping everything after that doesn’t work.

I even think about my older son. He’s in his last year of secondary school. The moment he turned 16, his Scottish Child Payment stopped. So now I have a 17-year-old who eats way more than a child, wears adult large clothing, and I have no money for him, so I’m left short. I can’t force him into a job as he wants to finish his Highers, so the little money I have from work and Universal Credit needs to be stretched even more.

I really think more should be done regarding childcare for older children. I can see why older children are seen as antisocial if parents are forced to just give their child a phone and keys and hope they go straight home from school, just so they can finish their shift at work.