Only two per cent of people who currently work in early years are male. Do you think there should be more effort to increase the numbers of men working in childcare and early years?
Listening to Families is a five-year research project looking at the childcare experiences of families in England, including their views on and needs for childcare today.
The final strand of Listening to Families now turns its attention to the provision of informal childcare by grandparents, and the interplay between informal and formal childcare provision. Despite a number of government initiatives since the childcare strategy in 1998, and duty in the Childcare Act (2006) on local authorities to ensure sufficient childcare provision, there is significant evidence to suggest that grandparents play a significant role in their grandchildren's lives, providing financial, emotional and childcare support when needed.
There has been limited qualitative research which explicitly documents the views of grandparents themselves. This research project will explore how and why grandparents are relied upon to provide childcare for their families, it will also ask what grandparents themselves feel about the childcare that they provide, plus their views on pertinent issues such as whether they expect payment for the childcare that they provide, how they view the care that they provide compared to formal childcare providers and if they work, how they combine childcare with employment and other responsibilities such as ageing parents, and whether they think the government should provide additional support for them.
Gathering evidence for this project involved interviews and focus groups with over 40 grandparents and 20 parents in England during November-December 2009, and the report will be published in March 2010.
Previous strand of our research involved consulting with parents and children between the ages of 6 and 12 about their experiences of and views on childcare all over England.
Read the reports from the first two phases of this research.
The series also includes ‘Listening to Young People about Extended Services in Schools'. Research was carried out among young people in secondary schools, up to age 15, from September to November 2008. The report will be available soon.
The Listening to Families research series is funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
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