Childcare-Sufficiency-Assessment-Refresh-March-2013-Final-Draft

20. Demand for Childcare20.1 Consultation with Parents’Full consultation with parents throughout the Authority was not undertaken for this review however, consultationwas carried out in the areas where further information was required to identify the need to develop holiday care orafter school provision.Analysis of the questionnaires indicated that in the Ferndale and Pontygwaith clusters the majority of the parentrespondents did not use formal childcare. They stated that they use partner or family and that childcare was tooexpensive. The majority of these parents worked part time as opposed to full time, with some not in employmentbecause there were no jobs available.In the Porth cluster out of 65 respondents 46% stated that they did not work with 18% stating that there were nojobs. 24% worked part time and 24% worked full time. 49.2% stated that they used childcare but 43% ofrespondents stated that they did not use childcare because it was too expensive.20.2 Parent Consultation - Conclusions:According to those surveyed as part of this refresh of the CSA, there is no unmet demand for full day childcare and the fullaudit in 2011 reached the same conclusion. Employment opportunities are limited locally and parents are decreasing theirdependency on full time registered childcare.The responses noted from parents of disabled children in the 2012 review evidenced that they did not use childcare becausethey were unemployed and in some instances they were unemployed because they had to look after their children. This is acomplex issue as many parents will be in receipt of a carer’s allowance which exceeds the salary they could expect to earn ata local level - given the caliber of many of the local employment opportunities. For example, a new Sainsbury store will openlocally in the summer and recruitment of up to 200 staff is currently underway but the majority of these jobs will be forbetween 12 and 20 hours per week. These types of jobs are therefore unattractive to parents of disabled children as they arelikely to be financially worse off but have the added complexities and stresses of getting their child to and from childcareprovision. It must be acknowledged however, that for some parents, the birth of a disabled child is an unanticipated event,which requires a parent to give up or suspend a career, in order to care for their child. This can and does cause financialhardship and in some cases, financial crisis for some families, so it is imperative that we continue to make childcare a viableand preferred option for those parents wishing to return to or access work.57