Media Round-Up: April 2023

While the dust started to settle on the Spring Budget, our response continued to be picked up by the media.

• In a report shedding light on how women are bearing the brunt of the  cost-of-living crisis, Channel4 referenced our findings that food inflation disproportionately affects women as they tend to have lower incomes and be responsible for food shopping and preparation.
• WBG’s early years and childcare lead Sarah Ronan wrote a piece for Public Sector Focus: “What does Jeremy Hunt’s Budget mean for the early years sector?”
• Maeve Cohen wrote a  brilliant blogpost for the Social Guarantee, stressing that ‘Childcare is not a luxury, it is essential infrastructure and must be treated as such through proper investment, workforce planning and fair pay and conditions for workers.’ and referencing our estimations on childcare funding.
  
• Reporting on another nursery closing its doors – leaving early years workers without jobs and parents without childcare, Alexandra Toppping interviewed WBG’s Sarah Ronan for the Guardian: “the government should really be working to stabilise the sector, and that starts with realistic funding levels”.
• Our findings that a “small increase in zero-hours contracts was experienced by women”, since the pandemic hit were quoted in this Prospect piece: ‘High employment can mask a growing precarity problem for Britain’s workers’
• A blog for Early Years Educators, asking “Where next for early years? Funding, affordability and the Budget”, referenced our estimated shortfall of £1.82bn in government funding for early education and childcare.
• In a piece for Conservative Home, commenting on the Budget childcare announcements, Lord Howard Flight cited our director Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson who warned in an earlier interview with the Telegraph that the combined cliff edge of support poses a particular risk to women who may be unable to return to work because they have a high-earning partner.