How Scotland is far behind Scandinavia on help for working parents – Hayley Matthews

In other parts of the world, companies provide childcare for staff in the workplace, writes Hayley Matthews.

Parents are the masters of multi-tasking – a skill that should be in high demand in the workplace (Picture: Getty)

My ‘juggling a little bit of work with two kids’ situation seems to just work. I have thought about going back to doing a full-time job but to be honest, childcare is just so expensive. At the moment I’m a freelancer so sometimes I do a bit on the radio or the telly with the odd voiceover, but it’s definitely not enough to justify a nursery placement.

So I need to juggle at the sniff of a job and with two little bambinos that can be very challenging at times. With full-time nursery costing an eye-watering £1200 a month, it just isn’t an option! Most people I know don’t even have a mortgage that expensive. I simply don’t have enough work coming in to even justify a fraction of that, plus we’re very lucky at the moment to have an early-years placement for a few hours a day to help out due to lack of support because that is a real issue for us.

And just because I’m sometimes on the telly and the radio, it absolutely does not mean that I don’t suffer from the family breakdowns, support issues and poor mental health etc that many others do. I realise just how difficult it is for many out there and it was something I discussed when chatting on BBC Radio Scotland during the week about childcare costs. One mum said that she actually loses money by going to her part-time job and was asked: “Why do you do it then?” Because we need to, want to and should be able to.

For me, working gives me a sense of purpose, confidence, a means to earn some well-needed pennies and I get to be me, do what I enjoy and hopefully do what I’m good at. We’re a talented bunch us mums and dads, we have so many skills to offer such as; quick thinking, problem solving, general first aid and the ability to multi-task beyond your wildest dreams. My biggest achievement of this kind was wiping one son’s bum, whilst holding the other whilst on the phone.

Admittedly there won’t be that many roles out there that demand that of you but my point is we’re grafters, empathetic, nurturing and good at prioritising. So why is it so difficult and so expensive for parents to get back into work? If I were to take up a full-time job, I’d be working to pay someone else for childcare because when you take off the cost of a full-time nursery placement and deduct tax, travel expenses etc I’d be lucky to have any money left.

Ironically, when the BBC called me to chat about the subject I was with my dad who was able to watch baby Oryn for an hour so I could give an insight into my situation. If he wasn’t available I’d be a bit stuck.

I am excited about the extra hours that come into play when our babies turn three (some two-year-olds are also eligible). However, three years is a long time to be out of work so what do we do in the meantime? It can be a juggle, a struggle and everything in between so it really should be easier to get back to work and being more affordable for many is the key.

We’re way behind many other parts of the world such as some of the Scandinavian countries where there are childcare operations set up in the workplace (could you imagine?). I’d love to see more of the big companies setting up nurseries in their buildings for workers to at least make it more accessible for childcare and if it was subsidised then just imagine the benefits to the economy? And that is why I believe it’s important for mums and dads to get back in to work after having kids so we really need to tackle the issue on making it more affordable before we give up and go on the dole!