Wendy Ball - Transforming Childcare and Listening to Families: Policy in Wales and Beyond

Wendy Ball, 2013

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9780708325513
eISBN 978-1-78316-301-4

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The right of Wendy Ball to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This is the tenth volume in the Politics and Society series. With a focus on childcare policy it explores an enduring issue, one that reflects wider social attitudes and practices and is a key indicator of the changing nature of gender relations in society. In the discussion, Wendy Ball heeds earlier calls for gendered social policy analysis to be transformed from a uni- or even bifocal into a multi-focal lens (Lister, 2000: 33). She presents an examination of the implications of constitutional reform and whether devolution in Wales has enabled the emergence of a distinctive social policy agenda on childcare as well as the impact that Welsh policy may have on the wellbeing of mothers, fathers and children. The result is a thoughtful analysis of recent public policy responses to asymmetric gendered behaviour whereby women have entered the labour market to a much greater extent than men have increased their childcare role.

Theoretically informed analysis is used to locate post-devolution developments within the context of the changing childcare policy landscape in the United Kingdom (UK). The volume is based on rich research data derived from interviews with mothers and fathers in three urban neighbourhoods with contrasting socio-economic profiles. This enabled the construction and analysis of childcare life histories. These personal accounts were then compared with emergent themes from UK, Welsh and local authority policy documents and complemented by interviews with regional and local policy officers.

This comprehensive methodology has delivered an account which considers tensions in the policy shift witnessed over post-war decades from the male breadwinner model towards the adult wage-earner model. Attention is given to how this may conflict with the wishes of many mothers to give priority to the care of their children. Such a focus also underpins the strong case presented by the author for an ethic of childcare which leads to a model combining universalism with choice and support. In this way, the discussion underlines the need for recognition of diversity amongst parents and cognizance of the impact material inequalities have on their childcare arrangements.

Transforming Childcare and Listening to Families is an important and timely contribution to contemporary policy debates. It finds evidence of a different policy style and vision in Wales and that this may provide opportunities to safeguard the rights and well-being of mothers, fathers and children. Yet the author also shows how childcare policy is a long way from fully promoting gender equality, supporting parents and meeting the interests of all children. Not least it has been constrained by a limited understanding of the connections between gender and childcare. Instead it has placed an emphasis on supporting role equity in paid work and an assumption that improved access to childcare will enable mothers to enter paid work. The discussion outlines how this has been accompanied by a general failure to understand the value of unpaid care. The author cogently observes how, inter alia, this is a function of gender-neutral policy language that downplays or ignores the discourses and social conditions of motherhood and fatherhood and fails to fully appreciate their implications for policy.

The first title in the series, New Governance New Democracy?, concluded that the creation of the National Assembly for Wales has altered the democratic landscape in Wales [it] promises innovation in governance and there are high expectations that devolution will bring about significant improvements in Welsh life (Chaney et al., 2001: 43). Notwithstanding significant developments witnessed over intervening years, one of the emerging messages of this book is that greater policy divergence between Wales and Westminster may be necessary if a fully effective policy response is to be developed that recognizes diverse needs, matches the initial high expectations associated with devolution and delivers on the post-1999 social policy discourse of equality and social justice.

Paul Chaney and Andrew Thompson
Series Editors

Childcare is a topic that attracts considerable public, political and media interest in relation to debates about worklife balance, parenting and welfare reform. Since the launch of the National Childcare Strategy (DfEE, 1998) academic and policy interest in childcare has grown considerably. The starting point for the research presented in this book was to explore how changes in childcare policy and provision impacted the daily lives of mothers with young children. Were mothers aware of developments in childcare policy and service delivery? Did they feel that policy made any difference in terms of their family life and childcare organization? Were their preferences and needs for support being met? What did mothers really think and were policies and services responsive to their views? How were these matters shaped by access to informal support for childcare and families material circumstances? This research revealed that there remains a significant gap between what mothers say they need in terms of support for childcare, how they want to organize their family lives and what is currently being offered. Extending the research to incorporate the experiences of a small sample of fathers, the capacity of policy, and provision to enable diverse and non-traditional caring roles for both men and women was also addressed.