Current Projects

Quality of Life in a Changing Europe

http://www.projectquality.org

Transitions: Gender, Parenthood and the Changing European Workplace

January 2003 to February 2006

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Dates and duration of research project
April 2003 - December 2005.
Location of project
Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London
Funding organisation
The Department of Health.
Names and titles of project directors
Professor Julia Brannen
Other staff
Ann Mooney, Michaela Brockmann, June Statham
Contact persons
Professor Julia Brannen, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, London.

Background
There is a growing need for workers to care for children who cannot live with their parents or relatives and to provide support for children who are in need. There is also increased awareness that day care services such as sponsored childminders and family centres can provide an important form of support for vulnerable children and families.

Yet, while there is an increased need for childcare workers, a number of factors combine to reduce the potential supply, causing problems in recruitment and retention. The rising elderly population is placing increasing demands on social care services, especially as those who have traditionally provided care for this group -women in their fifties and sixties - are increasingly likely to be themselves in paid employment. As well as competition from other care sectors, there are also more opportunities in the labour market for those who, in the past, did childcare work.

Of increasing relevance to issues of recruitment and retention are concerns about how far workers are able to manage their own informal caring responsibilities in the context of their paid work.

Focusing on foster carers, sponsored childminders and staff working with children in residential children's homes and family centres, this study will explore how these groups of childcare workers manage their work and family responsibilities across different phases of the life course; and it will suggest how employers may better attract and support childcare workers.

Aims

* To look at patterns of movement over the life course between formal and informal care work including movement between different types of formal childcare work, and the implications for recruitment and retention in the childcare workforce.
* To consider how different care workers understand the work they do and the skills and resources needed to manage the care of the children they look after, their own families and their own care needs.
* To examine how childcare workers negotiate work-life boundaries and identify support for childcare workers to help them provide good quality care for their families and those they care for.

Project design and method
The study will be undertaken between April 2003 and June 2005. There will be five stages to the work:

1. Postal survey of current childcare workers
Within two local authorities, foster carers, sponsored childminders and childcare workers in family centres and residential homes for children and young people will be asked to complete a postal questionnaire. The postal survey will provide information on current and previous employment, household and family histories, and issues around managing work and family and future employment intentions.

2. Interviews with managers
Those responsible for managing or supporting foster carers, sponsored childminders, and childcare workers in residential homes and family centres will be interviewed. Interviews will explore issues concerned with recruitment and retention including training, support and work-life balance.

3. Case studies of current childcare workers
This stage of the project is designed to consider in detail the factors that influence decisions about care work and care within the family. In-depth interviews will be undertaken with twelve childcare workers in each of the two areas, selected from those responding to the survey. Cases will be equally divided between our four groups of childcare workers.

4. Follow-up of postal survey respondents
A sample of approximately 60 survey respondents across the four types of childcare workers who indicate they may leave their jobs in the near future will be contacted again by telephone one year later. This will enable us to compare care workersí current care work status and views with their intentions one year previously, and explore the factors that have led to change.

5. Case studies of former childcare workers
Up to twelve care workers who have ceased providing childcare in the preceding year will be interviewed in depth using biographical methods. These interviews will collect information on reasons for leaving and what they went on to do, including difficulties around managing work and family responsibilities.

Publications