Change the Childcare Rules in Local Restriction Areas

Many families use a mixture of formal and informal childcare in order to continue working and ensure their children are looked after while they are working to provide for them. Local Restriction rules ban them from using informal childcare arrangements, such as grandparents, other family members and friends, unless they are part of their support bubble.

This includes many key workers such as NHS staff, police officers, teachers, shop workers and factory workers - people that have worked throughout this crisis to keep our country going. Many have used up their annual leave to cover childcare during the national lockdown, leaving them with no options now.

People with informal childcare arrangements tend not to be able to afford to pay for childcare or they work hours that do not fit in with paid childcare or paid childcare is not available or their children have disabilities that means formal childcare is not an option for them.

They are also highly likely to have employment contracts that state that they will not be paid for time off to look after children.

Not everybody can work from home, not everybody can work school hours, so how will they cope with the drop in income? Many are worried about losing their jobs.

We urge the Health Secretary to think again as these rules are just not practical or workable for many families, they cannot afford to employ private nannies and it is completely unrealistic to expect that they can arrange formal childcare within a matter of days or that they can afford formal childcare.