The news that Reform run South Tyneside Council has voted to close all 10 of its council-funded nurseries highlights an important recruitment issue. That is, that childcare is essential workforce infrastructure. For many parents, a nursery place is fundamental to their ability to work.

So childcare isn’t just a family issue.  It’s an employment issue.  It’s an economic issue.  And it’s a talent acquisition issue.

Losing a nursery space is more than just and inconvenience. It can mean;

• paying substantially more for childcare, impacting the viability of employment
• reducing working hours, or changing shifts
• turning down a job or a promotion
• delaying a return to work
• a whole rethink about a career path

The government’s 2025 childcare survey (https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents/2025) revealed that;

• around 66% of mothers in families with children under 5 only said that having reliable childcare helped them to work
• 18% of mothers in those families reported they were not working due to childcare issues.

That’s a significant amount of female talent, skills and experience potentially being lost from the workforce. Of course, mums aren’t exclusively impacted, the evidence shows that women are disproportionately affected, with mothers continuing to take on more of the childcare and be more likely than fathers to reduce their working hours or leave paid employment after becoming parents (https://ifs.org.uk/publications/careers-and-time-use-mothers-and-fathers)

How do we recruit the best talent in the face of childcare challenges?

Flexible working, supportive policies and inclusive recruitment practices can make a real difference. And many organisations are already working hard to improve retention, increase female representation, support returners and address skills shortages.   But how possible is that in the face of the external childcare provision that supports much of that being difficult to access? What if parents have just had to take what they can get?

From a recruitment perspective, it might mean taking a little more time still to consider not just whether someone can do the job, but whether the way the role is designed and recruited is workable for them.   Reflecting on questions like;

• Does the flexibility we offer actually work for working parents as well in practice as it looks on paper?
• Are our job adverts and person specifications unintentionally discouraging people who need predictable or structured hours?
• Could a candidate realistically afford to accept this role once childcare, commuting and other costs associated with working are factored in?
• Are we clear about what flexibility is genuinely available, rather than leaving candidates to work it out during the process?
• And what happens if a candidate or employee experiences a short-term disruption or major upheaval to their childcare arrangements?

These questions aren’t about lowering standards or fundamentally changing the requirements for a role, but about increasing the talent pool.  In a competitive market, the organisations that understand the realities candidates are navigating may be better placed to attract and retain the people they need.

Beyond talent acquisition

Essentially though,  if people are unable to work at all, increase their hours or return to the workforce because affordable, reliable childcare isn’t available, that goes beyond a talent acquisition issue.  It’s a serious economic matter, and needs to be a major part of the conversation at both local and national government level,alongside workforce participation, skills shortages, productivity and economic growth.

If we want more people to be able to work, and to prevent skills and experience being lost from the economy, we also need to look seriously at the infrastructure that makes working possible.