On The Horizon – February 2025

The State of Childhood

Soon after the launch of Bright Horizons’ UK Modern Families Index (MFI) 2025, we announced another arrival in the family! Modern Families Index - The State of Childhood Report 2025 has just been published.

The MFI surveys families unconnected with Bright Horizons, and the new report further explores their concerns about their children’s mental health, wellbeing and educational development which have reached worrying new levels recorded in the main Index report. The State of Childhood also releases fresh data on the skills working parents believe their children will need to succeed in their fast-changing futures.

It turns out that, for most parents, the primary emphasis remains on interpersonal and social skills, sitting well above computer science skills. This coincides too with The Princess of Wales – who is gradually returning to work after her cancer treatment – launching her ‘Shaping Us’ framework. This says that tackling society’s sense of isolation and mistrust “depends on how children are taught from their earliest days and that should include building social skills and ‘positive relationships’.” The framework report calls for “more emphasis on nurturing emotional and social connections from children's earliest days.”

This recognition of the centrality of a secure emotional base in our youngest future citizens underlines a vital bridge between the two main communities served by Bright Horizons in the UK: employers (engaged with our Work+Family services) and families using childcare (through our around 300 early years settings). The State of Childhood report shows that parents are calling on employers for increasing involvement in family life, and for help with parenting skills. The employers we work with make that expert advice available to their employees. Meanwhile, the Royal Foundation video on Shaping Us, could easily be describing Bright Horizons’ educational Philosophy, The Nurture Approach, practised in our nurseries.

Parental Stress and Employer Support

1. P. KPMG has just published important new data, which chimes in with the high parental stress in our main UK Modern Families Index report.

KPMG US's Working Parents survey shows the juggling efforts required of 1,000 U.S.-based parents holding down a professional role alongside family. The authors conclude that “working parents are juggling a number of responsibilities and are at a high risk of burnout without the right support systems in place to help them succeed." Specifically, "over half (53%) of parents surveyed struggle with ongoing childcare arrangements. Additionally, 49% report that their companies do not offer onsite or back-up childcare options, and 43% of parents are seeking better access to, or financial support for, childcare." Sandy Torchia, KPMG U.S. Vice Chair of Talent and Culture, has commented: “Flexibility, paid leave, back-up childcare, mental health support and tailored career advancement opportunities are not just workplace perks; they are essential lifelines for working parents, ensuring they can thrive personally and professionally.”

Forbes picked up the theme, directly linking it with the UK Modern Families Index. What struck Forbes journalist Josie Cox was KPMG US’s findings that “while 76% of working parents say that becoming a parent has enhanced their motivation at work – which in turn has helped them to achieve greater success in their careers – 53% say that they are struggling with ongoing childcare arrangements” given the lack of support noted above. Elena Richards, KPMG’s U.S. Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer urges employers: “Working parents are dedicated and ambitious employees who bring invaluable expertise and perspectives to their workplaces, families and communities. Organizations that embrace innovative and inclusive policies can not only help working parents thrive but also gain a competitive edge in attracting and retaining top talent.”

Return to Office

There is an ongoing focus in the HR press and other media on employers’ announcements of their latest phase in hybrid / office-base working arrangements. Current write-ups tend to take a balanced approach, weighing the benefits of both collective and remote working, even while reporting the comments of what we might call baby boomer influencers such as Lord Alan Sugar and Lord Stuart Rose who are considerably more one-sided – against – working from home.

Quite recently, the Chief Exec of Nationwide, ‘the world's biggest building society’, said women miss out on mentoring and career development if they choose to work from home more than men do (which she had found happened in her workforce). Responding, she switched policy to place more emphasis on office working. She coupled this announcement with advice to employers to help with childcare.

Indeed, when asked in the Modern Families Index how employers could best enable office attendance, parents & carers’ top five responses were flexibility of hours per day (39%), flexibility of days (38%), help with childcare costs (29%), help with commuting costs (28%) and childcare cover (23%).

Timewise has reminded us that – for frontline workers in particular – flexibility is about more than location and includes different work patterns such as part time, job shares and annualised or compressed hours. Without creative attention paid to flexibility in frontline work, there is what Timewise calls a ‘two-tier workforce'. Their report says a lack of flexibility is a key factor in “acute public sector recruitment and retention crises”. At Bright Horizons, we're proud to work with several NHS Trusts providing their workforces with childcare and back-up care to support their vital work and help their work-life integration.

Developments in Family Leave

Carers UK / Employer for Carers latest research, released at the end of January but run in Autumn 2024, reflected on the impact of statutory Carer's Leave, 6 months on. A key finding was that “44% of organisations have some form of paid carer’s leave available (between one and ten days) and, out of those organisations, just over a quarter (27%) have introduced this paid carer’s leave for the first time since the introduction of the Act”. Carers UK advocates for 10 days’ paid leave as an ideal. What working carers told us in the Modern Families Index is that – as well as time off – they also want practical support with finding care and access to back-up care.

Anticipation is building towards the new Neonatal Care Leave as a 'day 1 right' from 6^th April 2025. This will allow for to up to 12 weeks of paid leave, in addition to maternity, paternity or similar leave. It will apply to families whose babies up to 28 days old need care in neonatal units for a continuous stay of 7 full days or longer. In a different situation, in support of parents who sadly experience bereavement during pregnancy, the Women and Equalities Committee is making the case for paid ‘miscarriage bereavement leave’.

Exploring the career impact of taking leave, international research including Oxford Saїd Business School suggests that longer maternity leave may be damaging to women's careers and to gender equity at work. This is an argument for more gender-balanced parental leave. However, it surely also demonstrates a need to empower individuals to navigate and influence cultures which might discourage and sideline them. When our brilliant team of coaches works with individuals and managers through the parent transition, part of the core work is to keep careers on track and ensure all parties are well equipped for decisive conversations at those moments that matter.

Ofsted, regulation and high feelings about working from home with children

The National Nanny Association is calling for in-home nannies and also tutors to have enhanced DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service) checks and first aid training. Reassuringly, Bright Horizons' Back-Up Care nannies are already qualified, experienced and referenced, with enhanced DBS checks and first aid practising certificates to ensure the highest level of service quality.

The new Ofsted ‘report card’ format for inspection results is out for consultation until 28^th April. While discussing this, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson took the opportunity to underline the importance of school attendance, in light of higher absence figures from the Department for Education. The Education Secretary suggested parents working from home (WFH) are allowing children to stay off school on Fridays, pointing to a “casual kind of attitude increasingly emerging”. A backlash arose on Netmums with parents saying they don’t choose to work with children in the background. One said: “'We have work to complete and meetings to join. Anyone who was WFH during Covid, whilst simultaneously juggling children who would ordinarily have been in school and/or childcare, knows how impossibly difficult it was. We’re not here voluntarily recreating that scenario for the fun of it.” Which leads us right back to those earlier discussions on parental stress.