Daycare Trust: John Hutton addresses Childcare Seminar at the Treasury - more action needed to tackle child poverty

The needs of parents and children have never been higher up the political agenda, with all Parties competing to show they are championing families.

But how can Government balance implementing family-friendly policies with the needs of employers? Are there limits to extending parents rights to flexible working? And what can be done to close the gender pay gap?

All these themes and many more were explored in the Daycare Trust policy debate 'The Good Childhood Conflict' held at the Treasury this week.

Keynote speaker Rt Hon John Hutton MP Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform was joined by fellow panellists Alison Garnham, Joint Chief Executive of Daycare Trust, Dr Katherine Rake, Director of the Fawcett Society and Kay Carberry, Assistant General Secretary of the TUC. The event was chaired by Guardian writer and social commentator Polly Toynbee. The debate was sponsored by Sanofi Pasteur MSD, the vaccine division of Sanofi-Aventis and Merck & Co.

Speaking ahead of the debate John Hutton said:

"It's important that we support hard-working families, helping people to develop the best work-life balance through measures such as flexible working. In turn, these measures can help business gain through retaining skilled staff and savings on recruitment. This seminar rightly shines a light on the important issue of how we support people to raise families while enabling businesses to go on creating jobs."

Paid Parental leave?

The Secretary of State was challenged by Daycare Trust's Joint Chief Executive Alison Garnham on the need for paid parental leave. John Hutton said that although "People will say that the current legislation on parental leave is not perfect .I don't say that it is (perfect)" and paid parental leave "could come back on the agenda", he added that in his view it would be wrong to change the current entitlement without a consensus among Government, employers, unions and other organisations, and that "At the moment my guess would be there isn't a consensus for extending that right."

Equal pay

Fawcett Society Director Katherine Rake focused on the difficulties facing women in a labour market "that was designed by men and for men".

Dr Rake added that it was crucial the Government tackle unequal pay for men and women, saying:

"Narrowing the pay gap is good for women, good for children, good for ensuring that families stay above the poverty line so we are asking the government in the upcoming Equalities Act to move towards a pay auditing system that would actually prevent unequal pay arising in the first place."

Flexible working

Kay Carberry of the TUC mounted a strong defence of flexible working, saying that: "Providing flexible work is good for you. I'm rather tired of standing on platforms talking about the business case for a change in the organisation of work." She went on to say that employers organisations are sometimes shy of promoting the case for flexible working.

Kay also argued that "earnings related paternity leave was long overdue. Fathers cannot take paternity leave at the moment at the rate at which it's renumerated."


Ends.


NOTES TO EDITORS

Photos available by request

About Daycare Trust
Daycare Trust is the national childcare charity, campaigning for quality affordable accessible childcare for all and raising the voices of children, parents and carers. We advise parents and carers, providers, employers, trade unions and policymakers on childcare issues. We recognise that everyone is unique and we value difference in our communities. We listen to all views and are committed to act without prejudice. We oppose all discrimination and promote equality in all we do.

Daycare Trust is calling on the Government to:

1. Meet parents' aspirations for universal childcare services by:
- expanding free places for two, three and four-year olds to at least 20 hours a week, for 48 weeks in the year and
- subsidising out of school activities for all 11-14s and for younger children from poorer families, aiming ultimately to make them free.
2. Tackle the affordability crisis by giving local authorities the means to develop sustainable services in poorer areas and provide free places for those missing out, including places for disabled children, parents needing out of hours care, Further Education students and parents of under-threes who want to train.
3. Set new standards for the pay of childcare workers, either through national benchmarks or incentives such as the Graduate Leader Fund.

Daycare Trust runs an information line (020 7840 3350) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am-5pm. Parents can also visit www.daycaretrust.org.uk for information.
Daycare Trust is a member of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, www.ecpc.org.uk.
For further information, contact Daycare Trust on 020 7840 3350.

About Sanofi Pasteur MSD

Sanofi Pasteur MSD is a joint venture between sanofi pasteur, the vaccine division of sanofi-aventis, and Merck & Co., Inc. Combining innovation and expertise, Sanofi Pasteur MSD is the only company in Europe dedicated exclusively to vaccines. Sanofi Pasteur MSD is able to draw on the research expertise of sanofi pasteur and Merck & Co., Inc., together with their teams throughout the world, to focus on the development of new vaccines for Europe, which aim to extend protection to other diseases and perfect existing vaccines in order to improve the acceptability, efficacy and tolerability of vaccination.