Childcare issues hold back mums who want to work

Almost a million stay-at-home mums in England want to work but cannot because of a lack of suitable childcare.

A new report from Save (LSE: 0O98.L - news) the Children says around half of all out-of-work mums (870,000) would return into the workplace if they could arrange convenient, reliable and affordable childcare places.

Based on government figures, it found childcare issues cost mothers of under fives a total of £3.4m a day in lost earnings.

Steven McIntosh, Save the Children's Director of UK Poverty Policy, told Sky News more needs to be done to help parents:

"The government has made important reforms to improve the child care system for families," he said.

"But still we know the average family will still be paying around £8,000 even after the free hours the government has introduced for childcare.

"The government must look at the next steps to reform, it must listen to families to see what gaps there are still, assess what there is to do and then urgently reform the system to close those gaps and enable mums to get into work."

Rosalind Brookman from Surrey decided not to return to work following the birth of her son Theo.

She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) said: "When I did look at going back to work it just would not have been financially possible for me - to have to pay for childcare would have crossed out any wages I got because I wasn't on a particularly good wage and I think that's true for a lot of women.

"I think you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. If you've got a career you want to go back to its incredibly hard to find really good childcare that doesn't cost a phenomenal amount of money," she told Sky News.

Last year the government rolled out its programme of 30 hours free childcare for some working parents.

The Department for Education told Sky News the early implementation of 30 hours had helped almost a quarter of mothers to increase their work hours as a result.

A spokesperson added: "Our figures show that 294,000 children are now benefiting from a free 30 hours childcare place, saving hardworking parents money on their childcare bills and giving them extra cash in their pockets.

"Early evidence shows that this childcare offer has supported working mothers to increase hours."