Running Around in Circles Coordinating Childcare, Education and Work

There has been a long-standing interest in the barriers to paid employment presented by inadequate and costly childcare services. Yet, little research has been done to explore how families manage to coordinate childcare services and whether this could also act as a barrier to employment. Drawing on detailed interviews with mothers, this study explores how parents manage to coordinate the childcare and educational needs of all children in the family with their working arrangements. Uniquely, it adopts a family unit perspective to consider how these needs are managed. Christine Skinner is Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of York. She has considerable research experience relating to parenting and family policy matters, including childcare provision, family support services, child contact centres, child support obligations and the operation of the Child Support Agency.