How do we invest in the future? (published 2005)
The following characteristics of the relationship[s between BWT parents, their child-rearing responsibilities and priorities, and their needs for income, employment and quality of life have been established through sustained discussion across the network. The discussion focused on the nature of parental investment for children and the nature of wider investment by society.
Work/Life Balance
Almost all our parents do not want to balance full-time work with parenting responsibilities for young children.
They also believe that poor parents (especially single parents and households with more than two children) are being afforded less entitlement to remain unworking than better off households and those with two or fewer children. They argue that government policy is to encourage single parents and poor parents into work and that no targeted incentives exist to support those poor parents or those with two or more children to care for their children full time. They argue that this is discriminatory.
This does not mean, however, that BWT parents do not wish to be active players in the economy: they do, but not at the expense of their children.
BWT parents are arguing for systems of support at the micro-level that are many times more flexible than those currently envisaged within the mix of extended schools and children's centres of government policy.
Investment
Our parents want to be able to work for fewer than 16 hours each week and receive tax credits of some kind. Furthermore, they would like to be able to engage in collective self-employment with the opportunity to engage in collective forms of investment. It has been argued that a system of pension credits could be an option for men and women who do not want to work regular full or part time house, but who want to work episodically when a partner, friend or relative is able to care for their children.
"If we are prepared to reward employers and businesses for their capital investment in childcare solutions, so too should we reward individuals for their investment of time. In practice this means that time banks should receive sympathetic tax treatment as they grow and could form the basis of a personal 'satelite account' in which individuals could accrue entitlements, based on 'time dividends', which could be linked to pensions and lifelong learning." - Creche Barriers - How Britain can grow its childcare industry, Helen Wilkinson (Demos)
Quality
BWT parents have repeatedly asserted that they do not want strangers or poorly paid and under-qualified people looking after their children. The colditions for collective responsibility that have been created within BWT have stimulated collective forms of childcare, which can be brought within existing regulatory frameworks and deliver high quality.
"Familiarity with and trust in carers are the two aspects of care most valued by parents." - WBG submission to HM Treasury 2004 CSR
A BWT parent from York typified this quote when speaking at a BWT seminar in 2005. She spoke about a sitter circle run by a group of friends and their reluctance to broaden access when they had been approached by new people wishing to join it: "Would you trust another adult who was not a friend?"
The BWT Clifton group discussed their thoughts and concerns about childcare and raised the following issues about what constitutes 'quality' of childcare:
"In a babysitting circle it might be the male partners who do the baby sitting. They might not be as well known to the families, or there might be "men" issues."
"The ratios of children to adults can mean a parent can't look after his or her own children and other people's."
"Having one child looked after by someone else doesn't help parents when they still have others to look after."
"It is better if children are in a creche in the same building as their parents."
"There are lots of concerns for childminders, for example, if a parent doesn't return on time this impacts on other arrangements, insurance and litigation."
At National Level:
Big Wide Talk more often than not achieves one-to-one rations for young children doing very exciting things. BWT has, for instance, during 2005, completed five successful climbing expeditions and used its own climbing wall with children as young as two years old. The dividend in terms of child and adult learning is immense, as is the degree of newfound understanding between parents and practitioners that we regularly achieve.
All BWT activities can be mapped against National Curriculum and Foundation Stage Learning Objectives.
BWT parents and practitioners want a definition of quality that has real force and meaning in their lives. They regularly aspire to taking part in the care and education of their children as active citizens wishing to influence the services their children need. They are unconvinced by the rhetoric of 'choice', preferring to know and be able to speak with teachers every week as serious partners rather than take a back seat once they have 'chosen' a highly starred facility. They do not want to simply be consumers.
BWT practitioners and members of the national team regularly take part together in extended expeditions under canvas, sometimes at great distances from home and work.
Almost all of our parents and practitioners are highly committed to further education and continuing professional development, and see this as something they can share.
Rather than an orthodox system of institutions, BWT parents and practitioners wish to see a much more deliberate blurring of the boundaries between parents, children, and services. They are now beginning to see that a much less formal system of this kind, which is both accountable and of the highest quality, can be established.