Who's looking after the children?
 Finding good quality, affordable childcare can be one of the biggest challenges facing parents, but employers could be doing a lot more to lessen the hassle and ease the financial burden on employees, often at no great cost to themselves, says the TUC.
Launching a new childcare guide to help unions find the best ways of encouraging employers to make workplaces better meet the needs of working parents, the guide says offering good childcare support often makes it easier for employers to recruit and retain staff.
‘Who’s looking after the children?’ says employers might want to consider opening a workplace nursery that offers cheaper places to staff. Or it suggests, a group of employers in a locality might choose to come together to offer a crèche for all employees to use. Childcare vouchers, which are tax exempt for both employer and employee, or childcare subsidies are other popular ways of helping parents survive the childcare years.
Simple changes like allowing parents the flexibility to change their hours to fit in with nursery drop off and pick up times can make the world of difference, says the guide. In workplaces where unions have been able to negotiate the introduction of term time working, annualised hours or job-share arrangements, both parents and employers have seen enormous benefits.
Who’s looking after the children? A trade union guide to negotiating childcare PDF (1.9MB)
The TUC has also added new childcare advice for parents to the worksmart website.
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