At the local elections last May, we both made a promise to our respective electorates that we would look into the issue of affordable and accessible childcare and the challenges this represents in the busy, 24-hour London economy. As Labour councils, we also wanted to help ensure that all children in our boroughs are getting the best start in life.
Chaired by Tessa Jowell MP and supported by five expert commissioners, we commissioned IPPR to work with them to undertake research which would better elucidate the problem for us. From there we asked them to provide us with a set of interesting and innovative recommendations which we can now go away and explore.
The commission found a real need for change in how childcare and early years services are provided. Too many parents are being held back from employment or from working enough hours to make ends meet because the cost of childcare is simply prohibitive, or care is not available at the right times. Current government policy in this area is not going far enough and does not work for many parents. Maternal employment in London is 15 per cent lower than the rest of the country. There is still too big a gap between the life chances of those who are born in less well off households compared to their peers.
However, the challenging fiscal context facing councils means we cannot right this problem on our own. We have both seen our budgets slashed by government. As such, the recommendations in the report highlight the need to work with a range of partners who should all have an interest in improving the childcare offer society makes to parents. It is clear that extra investment in early years services can reap much bigger returns for central government, local government and, most importantly, children themselves later on.
We understand that finances are tight in central government too – we know that there is unlikely to be any ‘new money’ found to tackle this whoever is in power after May. Importantly, the report therefore recommends that childcare, early years and education budgets should be looked at as a whole, with the government taking a ‘0-18’ funding approach to children’s lives. This would also need to be seen in the context of a bigger agenda for more place-based budgeting, with local councils at the helm. This would mean we could reallocate more money to early years services if we feel that is what our communities needs, which this report makes clear is necessary.
Local employers and businesses can also have a role to play through expanding childcare friendly policies, and as councils we can explore the levers available to make that more attractive to them. In the coming weeks we will be talking to our local business communities about how we can work together on the issue of childcare.
The mayor of London can also play a key role. We believe serious consideration should be given to the recommendations in this report, such as looking at how to expand access to affordable loans, creating a coalition of London employers committed to improving childcare for their employees, and making things easier for parents by making transport costs more manageable.
Of course we also facilitate parents themselves to play a much bigger role through helping them set up childcare cooperatives, such as for after-school and holiday provision.
The report also found that community institutions like children’s centres, which act as one-stop-shops for busy parents with a range of co-located services, are really valuable. These were a key achievement of the last Labour government, and Southwark and Lambeth both have great examples of children’s centres that act as real community hubs. We need to ensure parents right across both boroughs have access to the best examples of these, and that best practice is harnessed and shared across boroughs.
We believe if Lambeth and Southwark councils, central government, local employers, the mayor’s office and parents themselves come together to implement some of the suggestions in this report we will see a real step change. This can be both in terms of the ease with which parents can find the flexible, affordable and high-quality childcare solutions that they need, but also for better life outcomes for the children of Lambeth and Southwark.
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Peter John is leader of Southwark council. Lib Peck is leader of Lambeth council
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The full Lambeth and Southwark Childcare Commission report is available here
The five commissioners of the report are:
Naomi Eisenstadt Senior research fellow, Oxford university
Tony Travers Academic and journalist, specialising in issues affecting local government
Vidhya Alakeson Chief executive, Power to Change and former deputy chief executive, Resolution Foundation
Kathy Sylva Professor of Educational Psychology, Oxford university
Anand Shukla Chief executive, Brightside and former chief executive, Family and Childcare Trust