Allow parents to use informal childcare when tighter measures are introduced · petition

What the petition asks

Tighter measures have now been introduced in regions across the UK to prevent the spread of Covid19. As part of these measures the Government is preventing parents from using informal childcare (relatives or friends) yet childcare facilities remain open.

A third of parents use informal childcare so that they can work (figures from the ONS). If an exception is not made to allow this to continue it means that many parents will be forced to reduce their work hours, or worse, leave their jobs. This will disproportionately fall on the shoulders of women, increasing the gender pay gap and ultimately increasing child poverty. It makes little sense that children are unable to be cared for by close family members but they can attend a childcare facility

Why it was rejected

The UK Government or Parliament was already taking the action it asked for.

Since you started your petition, the Government has changed its guidance to allow for informal childcare arrangements to continue during localised lockdowns: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/childcare-to-be-exempt-from-interhousehold-mixing-restrictions-in-local-areas-of-intervention

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you find out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/192/the-governments-response-to-coronavirus/

Timeline

18 Sep 2020	Petition opened for signatures
23 Sep 2020	Rejected by the Petitions Committee