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.