WHO WE ARE
We are building a grassroots coalition of early years workers, parents & carers campaigning for fair pay & inclusive early years education and care
for all children and all childcare workers
Post Pandemic Childcare connects and supports local campaigns and union branches fighting cuts to public, workplace and community nurseries across England. We were set up in 2021 to platform overlooked voices of the childcare crisis – raising the issue of unpaid childcare, the impact on SEND and the exploitations of the hostile environment. We are now building a grassroots movement for public childcare – childcare for all.
Alongside, and to support this work, this we have been mapping childcare organising histories in London and beyond, with oral history project On the Record – telling the little known story of a diverse movement for childcare, to inspire the fight for a more just early years education and childcare system.
We are seeking to build a coalition from the grassroots – gathering local union groups representing early years workers and parents campaigns fighting the closure of community and public early years provision.
Steering group (2023): Nirupama Naidu and Louise O’Hare (parent campaigners, SEND Crisis, Tower Hamlets), Veronica Deutsch (early years worker, Nanny Solidarity Network), Caroline Hughes (early years worker, Salford UNISON), Lee Shannon (parent campaigner, Fight For The Five, Salford)
The 'Public Childcare Now' campaign steering group is being established – please contact us if you would like to be involved. Check out How We Work for more details of our structure.
Background
We named ourselves 'Post Pandemic' when it when it indicated a hopeful future! We have kept our name to remember that we are still living in the aftermath of that public health crisis – including severe impacts on child development, ongoing austerity, and the devaluation of childcare work – both paid and unpaid.
We had initially formed in the Summer of 2020 as a group of individuals who felt frustrated and let down by the government's response to childcare during the first Covid-19 lockdown. We sought to mobilise and in January 2021 the third lockdown spurred us into action. Our national campaign in 2021 included demands related to the pandemic, alongside calling for the abolishment of the Two Child Cap and No Recourse to Public Funds, increases to Child Benefit, and an urgent, conditional, direct funding of childcare settings – preventing further closures of public and community nurseries and childminders, increasing local democratic accountability, ensuring real living wage, affordable accessible places, and with no profits to shareholders.
These demands were published in open letter to the Minister for Early Years, Vicky Ford, supported by fifteen MPs, and organisations including Greenwich NEU, United Childcare Workers (UVW), Kalayaan, The Voice of Domestic Workers, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Nanny Solidarity Network, the New Economics Foundation, UK Women’s Budget Group and the Institute for Public Policy Research.
The letter was co-written by Nirupama Naidu and Louise O’Hare (parent campaigners, SEND Crisis, Tower Hamlets), Veronica Deutsch and Miranda Critchley (organisers, Nanny Solidarity Network), Lee Shannon (parent campaigner, National Public Day Nurseries campaign and Fight For The Five, Salford), Lucie Stephens (director, Friendly Families Nursery, Deptford). It was first publicly circulated on Friday 22 January 2021 and received over 500 signatures.
Since then we have focused on building a longer term grassroots movement. We believe that workers and parents are often siloed from one another in childcare campaigning and see this coalition as a way of unifying to create change for all.
Please be in touch if you'd like to be involved, share ideas, or to find out how to affiliate to upcoming national campaigns! PostPandemicChildcare@gmail.com
You can also read more about what we're up to, by following us on social media, signing up to our (irregular) mailing list below, or by checking out our News page – where you can find details of local campaigns, demonstrations, and upcoming meetings and events.
You can find us on:
Twitter: @postpandemicch1
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