Lib Dem Conference: Childcare and paternity policies

Growing up I was always aware of the struggles my mother suffered in taking care of my siblings. An asylum seeker from Angola who fled to England alone with her children, leaving behind my father who also sacrificed a lot to ensure our safety, my mother faced new challenges upon reaching the country. I was always aware of the difficulty of balancing her job with the unpaid hours of housework and caring. As a result of this, the Liberal Democrats’ new policy paper, which focuses on increasing the allocation of free childcare hours, piqued my interest in terms of today's conference.

Baroness Tyler of Enfield, who has always maintained a positive role in issues regarding social mobility and wellbeing, heads up the Lib Dem group on "A Balanced Working Life", whose key policy proposals are focused on improving living conditions of low- and middle-income households by establishing an official living wage, promoting a major expansion of free childcare hours and encouraging more parental leave by fathers with an introduction of a "Daddy Month".

I am pleased the Lib Dems have taken action to improve the situation of many families like mine, and are taking steps to strengthen the middle and lower classes as well as attempting to alleviate the burden on parents who have to juggle their professional and familial responsibilities.

Another point of praise for this policy paper is the focus on paternity leave. As a member of a youth charity I have often heard that one of the problems is the lack of positive male role models but despite the apparent shift towards greater gender equality, women are entitled to 26 weeks’ ordinary maternity leave, however men are only permitted up to two weeks’ paternity leave (Directgov, 2013) – not only does this pressure the mother to leave her job for longer and act as the principal parent, but it also damages a father’s opportunity to equally participate in parenting and be that positive role model.

However the policy paper's proposal for a "living wage" suggests a lack of economic thinking. Following the financial crisis of 2008 the UK has developed an even greater debt and the suggestion of offering this wage demonstrates to me a lack of understanding of our current economic position.

Whilst I agree with the intentions of the policy paper in simple monetary terms, the implementation of all these policies seems very costly. Only time will tell if the party is able to implement these policies as the government, however I recommend that focusing on achieving these plans while keeping costs low will at least improve those chances.

Americo is blogging on behalf of Kids Count, a think-tank focused on the practical rather than the theoretical. Find out more at www.kidscount.org.uk