Page 12 - BPW-UK - E-news - Edition 124 - September 2024 - COMPLETED

CARE, WOMEN AND A NEW ECONOMY
A FOUR NATIONS CONFERENCE

President Jo and I recently attended a two-day conference in Belfast organised by
the Women’s Budget Groups from the four UK nations.

The conference began with a video presentation from Northern Ireland Executive Fi-
nance Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald, who acknowledged that women contribute much to
the economy. In Northern Ireland there are 400,000 women in employment, but if provided
with affordable childcare many more could enter the labour market or work longer hours.
She noted that gender budgeting can transform the funding picture, and she believes in the
value of a caring economy.

Discussions over the two days focussed on caring at all levels of life – childcare, car-
ing for a disabled child or adult, and care for the elderly, both paid and unpaid.

Care is seen as “soft.” There is a huge need for caring to be valued, properly provid-
ed and adequately rewarded. Care is seen as something provided primarily by women, and
care-giving impacts both on women’s careers and on their health and well-being.

Women often have to take breaks from their careers – to bring up children and in lat-
er life to care for elderly and ailing parents. These breaks can have a knock-on effect on a
women’s ability to progress up the career ladder and can cause women to find themselves
financially disadvantaged when they reach pension age. Also, many young people are
themselves carers, which can prevent them from entering further education thus restricting
their employment opportunities for the future.
We attended three breakout sessions – on childcare, social care and unpaid care. It
was interesting to hear from participants how provision differs across the UK.
Childcare - Scotland, Wales and England provide various levels of paid childcare while
Northern Ireland is somewhat behind, with a much promised childcare strategy still waiting
to be implemented. However back in May 2024, the Northern Ireland Executive Education
Minister announced a £25 million package of measures for childcare and early years provi-
sion. The NI Childcare Subsidy Scheme is now up and running, offering a 15% subsidy on
childcare costs across the board. In the UK large international chains are providing child-
care, making large profits, and not paying UK Tax. Childcare is expensive in all regions.
Often women are paying a large part of their salary to cover childcare. Childcare and early
years education needs much investment in all four nations, particularly in training of child-
care and early years workers.

Jo writes about the session on Social Care led by Kellie Turtle (https://www.linkedin.com/in/
kellie-turtle/ )

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