'My career is on hold due to childcare problems'

Billie Graham, 29, said childcare was not being discussed enough in election debates despite its impact on families

A young mum whose career has been halted due to nursery costs and availability has called on politicians to “fund childcare more”.

Billie Graham, 29, is a qualified teacher - but she currently works in a shop at weekends because this is when her partner can look after their two-year-old daughter.

Ms Graham, who lives in Leek in Staffordshire, is among the many people who contacted the BBC via Your Voice, Your Vote to say childcare was the most important issue for them in this election.

"It's just frustrating. I want to work, I really want to work," Ms Graham said.

A full-time nursery place for a child under two in Great Britain costs £15,709 on average per year, a 6% increase on the year, according to a BBC analysis of research published by the charity Coram in March.

The Conservative government plans to expand state-funded childcare for working parents, with a rollout due to take place in stages between April 2024 and September 2025. The Labour party has said it will match this expansion.

Since April, eligible working parents with two-year-olds have been able to claim 15 free hours of childcare per week, thereby extending a free hours scheme that was already in place for three and four-year-olds.

From September 2025, these parents will be able to claim 30 free hours for children from the age of nine months until they start school.

Ms Graham had to turn down a job at a nursery last year due to childcare costs. Now that her daughter is eligible for some free care, she will start attending a pre-school - although a five-month waiting list means she can only start in September.

Ms Graham hopes she can then gradually return to her profession, but she is worried that her family will still struggle financially because her wages as a nursery worker will be low and the free hours are only available during school terms.

“Whatever I earn on minimum wage, most of it’s gonna go to nursery fees,” said Ms Graham, whose partner works as a mortgage arrears advisor.

More than 1 in 5 parents (22%) who were eligible for the new funding for two-year-olds were still considering leaving their jobs or reducing their hours as they could not afford to work, according to a survey in March by the campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed.

Thousands of parents marched in cities across the UK in 2022 to call for childcare reforms

Ms Graham said her message for the political parties was: “Just fund childcare more”.

She said this would include year-round subsidies and paying nurseries more to provide free places, so they could offer good care and balance their books.

Thousands of parents protested across the UK in 2022 to call for childcare reforms and the expansion was a central announcement in the 2023 Spring Budget.

Ms Graham said she was disappointed that she had not seen childcare mentioned in election debates so far, as it was still a crucial issue for many families.

She added that she and her partner were “just trying to get by” financially until she could work properly again, and they could not afford a second child.

“I always wanted two children, [but] how am I even going to fathom doing that?” she said.

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The parties’ manifestos contain several pledges on childcare and related measures:

• The Conservatives said they would continue to roll out free childcare expansion until September 2025. They would also increase the income threshold for claiming child benefit

• Labour have pledged to match the government’s free childcare expansion. They would also open more than 3,000 new nurseries and provide free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England

• The Liberal Democrats said they wanted all parents to have access to flexible, affordable and fair childcare. Their manifesto also includes plans to increase maternity, paternity and shared parental leave pay, plus an enhanced rate of child benefit for one-year-olds

• The Green Party said it would extend the government's childcare offer to 35 hours per week from the age of nine months and abolish the two-child benefit cap, as well as providing breakfast clubs in primary schools

• Reform UK has pledged to "frontload" the child benefit system for children aged 1-4 to give parents more time with their children

What really matters to you in this general election? What is the one issue that will influence your vote? Click the button below to submit your idea, and it could be featured on the BBC.