MBL: Coronavirus and Childcare

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 825 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2020

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Schools partially closed, nurseries struggling to reopen, grandparents shielding, childminders grappling with social distancing and a lack of au pairs because of travel restrictions. Arguably the UK faces a childcare crisis. At the same time, lockdown is being lifted, the Job Retention Scheme is being wound down, and the government is urging us all back to work to rebuild our shattered economy.

But how can parents work without affordable, quality childcare? And how can childcare providers deliver if they don't have the cash coming in? What help is available if you’re income’s dried up, but you still have fees to pay or overheads to settle?

Louise Cooper and a panel of experts are here to answer your childcare questions. Email moneybox@bbc.co.uk or tweet @moneybox

Guests: Purnima Tanuku, CEO, National Day Nurseries Association Will Hadwen, Benefits adviser from Working Families Megan Jarvie, Head of Family and Childcare at Coram

Producer: Sally Abrahams Editor: Emma Rippon

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.8	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.5	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put
0:28.3	together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:35.0	check out BBC Sounds.
0:41.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:48.5	Schools still partially closed, nurseries struggling to reopen, grandparents shielding,
0:54.5	childminders grappling with social distancing, and a lack of opairs because of travel restrictions.
0:58.4	Arguably, the UK faces a childcare crisis.
1:03.7	At the same time, lockdown is being lifted, the job retention scheme wound down, and the government urging us all back to work to rebuild our shattered economy.
1:09.0	But how can parents work without affordable quality childcare?
1:13.6	As ever on Moneybox Live, we want your stories and experiences. So please email Moneybox
1:19.9	at BBC.co.uk or tweet at Moneybox. Well, let's hear from Moneybox listener, Ashley, from Romsey. Hello, Ashley. Hi. Now, you're mum to a three-year-old
1:34.0	boy, Hunter. Yes. A lovely, if I remember rightly, though, a fairly challenging age. Oh, he's
1:41.8	completely wild. So you pay for nursery for him. What happened during lockdown?
1:50.6	So as lockdown happened really abruptly, we were kind of told, okay, on Fridays the last day.
1:56.6	And then it was a couple of weeks into lockdown because we'd already paid up until the end of March.
2:02.2	We received a letter saying that parents were being charged a 30% retainer fee,
2:07.6	even though the nursery wasn't going to accept my child in.
2:11.1	I think they did stay open for key worker children and kind of sent us the invoice for 30%,
	...

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