SWBG blog

Labour’s second budget, did the Chancellor get it right?

Blog by Sara Cowan, Director, and Carmen Martinez, Policy and Engagement Lead

After weeks of speculation about what measures would feature in her second budget, the Chancellor has finally delivered her Autumn Statement. As always, it is a mixed bag—but this budget does include some measures worth celebrating from a women’s equality perspective. 

Let’s start with the most obvious win: an end to the two-child limit. After years of mounting evidence—and thanks to the tireless work of many organisations and individuals, including those under the banner of the End Child Poverty Coalition—the UK is finally seeing the end of this punitive policy. The result? Around 350,000 children will be lifted out of poverty, and a further 700,000 will find themselves in less deep poverty.  

In Scotland, the Scottish Government had already committed to mitigating the two-child limit. However, today’s announcement will free up the £155 million that was to be allocated to achieve this commitment. This extra funding should be directed toward other policies aimed at tackling child poverty in line with the government’s priorities, for example increasing the rate of the Scottish Child Payment. Yet with the benefit cap still in place, the Scottish Government will need to continue to cover costs of mitigating its impact. 

Another announcement that will have a significant impact on women is the decision to support families with three or more children by increasing the maximum amount of childcare costs they can claim through Universal Credit. Equally important as introducing new measures is ensuring that existing policies work effectively. In this regard, it is reassuring to see a written commitment for the Department for Work and Pensions to reassess overpayments caused by incorrect operational guidance on averaging fluctuating earnings, and to begin reducing, cancelling, or reimbursing debts previously collected from affected carers from 2026. 

While the focus on social security is welcome, the UK budget’s biggest omission remains social infrastructure. There was no mention of care infrastructure or support for care services, childcare or social care —provisions that are essential for advancing women’s equality. This is an area we will hope to hear a lot more about in the Scottish Budget, particularly regarding critical investment in social care services that could support the delivery of the Scottish Government’s commitment to ending non-residential social care charges. 

Another highlight of the budget was the increase in the minimum wage and the move to equalise earnings for younger workers. For women, who are more likely to be on lower wages, including many childcare workers, this increase is particularly significant. However, we continue to call for payment of at least the real living wage to all those working in the care sector, with higher wages for frontline roles in social care and childcare, to recognise the skilled nature of the work. 

Pivoting to announcements that support a Just Transition, it’s encouraging to see that the government will introduce energy relief, saving households £150 on electricity bills. A closer look at the budget papers reveals that “energy costs will be reduced by the ending of the Energy Company Obligation, which is currently funded through bills, and through the government funding 75% of the domestic cost of the legacy Renewables Obligation for three years.” 

This focus on alleviating the cost of living is important. After all, energy costs are the second-highest single expense making women worse off, according to our annual women’s survey. Yet the Energy Company Obligation was a scheme requiring large energy companies to help low-income and vulnerable households heat their homes via energy efficiency improvements or heating system upgrades. Its removal could represent a step backwards in decarbonising our homes, delivering a Just Transition, reducing bills in the long-term and effectively tackling climate change. A further review of the budget papers will hopefully clarify where support for a Just Transition will come from and what this might mean for Scotland. 

Finally, a lot has been said about taxes. What’s been presented in the budget is a missed opportunity for fundamental improvement to our tax system. While small steps were taken for what the Chancellor said would be the wealthiest contributing the most this fell short of significant change such as fully matching taxing income from work and from wealth or consideration of a broader wealth tax. 

It was also encouraging to see changes to both the higher rate of Air Passenger Duty (APD) - known as a Private Jet Tax - and the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. While APD does not directly apply to Scotland, as it is a devolved tax, the Scottish Government could follow suit to support its efforts in tackling the climate emergency. As for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, much attention has been paid to milkshakes. However, growing evidence links sugar and ultra-processed foods to worsening health outcomes. From a financial perspective, it is fair to say that the NHS cannot continue shouldering the costs of market failures. 

So, to return to our initial question: the Chancellor’s overdue changes to the social security system are very much welcome. Yet a key takeaway from this budget has to do with the absence of investment in social infrastructure, particularly in care. We need far bolder action to improve our public services—even if that means breaking manifesto promises. 

Don´t let the wind blow our mandala

In this powerful blog, Arantxa Garcia de Sola — a member of the project’s Steering Group — reflects on her experience contributing to the newly published report on Poverty and Inequality in Aberdeen. 

I’m someone who writes. I even find it easier to express myself in writing than when speaking. It’s not because of English—it’s not my mother tongue, no- but it’s the same in my beloved Spanish. And maybe that has something to do with one of the things I’ve really loved about being part of the steering group for this project. For me, it’s been new and fun to work with so many different ways of expressing things — discovering how to pull something out of the brain, the heart, or the gut… without writing a text longer than what fits in a post-it, sometimes not even using words. 

First day: pile of gossip magazines, cut out, cut out and present what problems women with limited resources face in this humid and windy city in the northeast of Scotland, Aberdeen (humid and windy are my words ?). I expressed my scepticism: “With those magazines?” I swallowed my scepticism. There, among the news about British and international celebrities, was hidden the often-present mold in the flats of the granite city, the double workday inside and outside the home, menopause, periods, gaslighting from GPs who see everything as hormonal… 

Ummmm… What’s next? Well, now, coloured post-its. Write down, write down the topics you want to discuss. Right, I wasn’t so sceptical anymore. Now I was more… just curious! Eager to catch a glimpse of new perspectives, because I didn’t use to talk about these things with other women. (Before this, at least) And then… what will happen? The post-its are regrouped, forming clusters, repeated topics emerge. We are nine, all very different, three of us from across the Atlantic; we are older, younger, and middle-aged; salaried, self-employed, juggling kids and the house, that is, working without pay; as fit as a whale or with those invisible disabilities that, because they’re not seen, are perhaps harder to deal with day to day, since one doesn’t immediately get understanding or support… but, oh… Wow! It turns out we’re affected by the same things: the incredible price of the buses, and rising; the lack of street lighting in a country where the night is soooooo long, just, only, nine of twelve months of the year; the cost of housing, the lack of support for those with caregiving responsibilities, have I mentioned the gaslighting from GPs? (yes? Oh, sorry, it must be the hormones). Hey, I thought these things only happened to me—but they don’t. The one 30 years younger, and the one 20 older, the one with no kids and the one with an extra one… no, it’s happening to all of us. 

Yes, there’s room for apps too, and we made a mind map on Canva, to see what stems from each of the themes we’ve identified. Because, yes, all nodes have branches and sub-branches and sub-sub-branches. Bus fare: keeps me from moving freely, I get isolated at home, my mental health miss socialization… or if it’s a must, like having to take the kids to school, well… then I’ll have to cut back on something else. C’mon… yeah, I don’t see that well with these glasses anymore, but they’ll do for one more year. The dentist… Let me LOL. 

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and another idea is to show in a mobile photo what poverty means to us: shopping trolleys full of yellow-label items, cheap, non-nutritious food that keeps the stomach full; the key to a home surrounded by the haze of a long-cherished dream… 

And here comes my favourite: modelling playdough, yes, we go back to childhood. The gatekeeper, the cordless phone… the difficulty isn’t even accessing services themselves but simply getting information about them—this takes shape in volume and pastel colours. What colour are paradoxes? Like those in a leaflet for an ESOL beginner’s course or for childcare grants to attend the course—that are only available in English. A teammate models a grid with little yellow rolls… if you don’t fit into any box… ohhhh… get ready to go round, and round. And round. 

If old traditions placed women knitting around a table… in this project we’ve woven lists of worries, fears, hopes and dreams cut short by the lack of pounds around a paper tablecloth as our canvas, with markers instead of needles. But just the same, with many hands knitting together… 

I also like mandalas. You have that little circle, and it grows, forming a design, intricate, complex, that from an outside perspective reveals clear patterns. That’s how I think our report has grown… like a mandala a collective mandala of experiences, needs, and hopes drawn by dozens of hands, those of the steering group and those of the young women, the travellers… all the other women of Aberdeen who attended the various focus groups, and the ones that answered the survey. I only hope our mandala won’t be like those sand ones created for meditation and then left to their fate and blown away by the wind. 

It won’t be. Let’s not let it blow away. 

May those reading—decision-makers, neighbours, allies—see in it something useful, something worth holding onto. And above all, may the wind not carry it away. 

 And tomorrow, one more parent will be able to choose whether to work part-time to stay home with their children or take on full-time hours, because the kids are well cared for, playing with others their age. And this winter, one more family will spend the afternoon at home, warm, having a nutritious snack, fresh food. And a young person over 22 won’t hesitate to go see that new exhibit at the Art Gallery because they can’t afford the bus fare. And there will be one fewer woman dreaming about the key to a safe, pleasant place to raise her daughter, who, by the way… when she grows into an independent woman will use gossip magazines to make collages of night walks down well-lit streets, post-its for a weekend excursion list in affordable public transport, and playdough to shape dolphins leaping in Torry. 

Voices from the Front Line - researching social care workers' experiences in Scotland

In this blog SWBG Training and Participation Lead, Heather Williams, reflects on our recently published research Voices from the Front Line: Social care workers in Scotland.

That the Social Care sector in Scotland is in crisis is not news. From recruitment to staff retention, people are unable to receive the care packages they need, placing additional pressure on unpaid carers. This all disproportionately impacts women. 

What is less widely recognised however is if and how the sector’s terms and conditions undermine the Scottish Government’s commitments to fair work, tackling child poverty, and driving economic growth. This research aimed to fill this gap. 

The Scottish Women’s Budget Group (SWBG) engaged with 50 paid carers through this project, who were clear about the satisfaction they gained from their work—especially from seeing the positive difference it made in the lives of those they cared for. Yet, the project’s participants also told us about how they struggled to live on the wages they received and how their terms and conditions affected them negatively, all of which is at odds with the Scottish Government’s Fair Work agenda. 

In the last few days, we’ve yet again heard the idea that care work is low skilled work being communicated by the UK Government.  Seeing care work as unskilled labour is in part due to the skills required often being overlooked or assumed to be innate qualities of the disproportionally female workforce.  

The women we spoke with highlighted the high levels of autonomy and responsibility that those working in the sector often have. Those working in the sector are increasingly working with people with complex health and care needs all of which adds to the skills needed to work in this field. 

‘Often when you hear people talk about people who work in social care, you hear the words, oh, it’s a vocation, you know, so it’s that thing about. Because you love it, you’ll do it for less’    

The women we spoke with were clear about this and stressed that if they did similar work in the NHS they would get better pay and conditions.  

‘Having the living wage doesn’t make much difference due to the cost of living being high. I regularly don’t have enough money to do me through the month.’ 

Based on 24/25 pay awards, an NHS worker at Band 3 was paid £26,869-£28,9989 compared to £24,570 for a social care worker on Real Living Wage. As a result, social care workers are being forced to adjust their household budgets to make ends meet. The disparity in funding, which contributes to low pay and conditions, meant that 50% of those we engaged with struggled to afford their energy costs, and 30% had to adjust other areas of household spending to cover these. Can Scotland realistically grow its economy when a significant portion of its workforce has so little disposable income to spend in their communities? Participants confirmed what we already know. Our own modelling showed that putting more money into social care—especially by raising wages—pays off for the local economy, helping to create new jobs and boost spending. 

What did the research show about the sector’s working conditions and its links with child poverty? Having paid work is not always enough to escape the risk of poverty, and this is definitely the case for those working in the adult social care sector. 

In Scotland 70% of children in relative poverty after housing costs were living in working households. The TUC found that across the UK one in four children with care worker parents are growing up in poverty. As tackling child poverty is a key priority for the Scottish Government, addressing low wages in the social care sector should be a lever used to address this problem.  

But low pay in the sector doesn’t just impact on the women we spoke with in the here and now, it also has long term consequences for them. Only 60% of those who participated in this research were able to pay into a pension. Women told us they just didn’t have the disposable income to make pension contributions and while they worried about what retirement would look like, surviving now took precedence. 

There is more: the project’s participants told us that the physical nature of the role took its toll on their bodies. Even with equipment to help with lifting and moving, many women had bad backs or other issues, which impacted on their everyday lives. Yet musculoskeletal injuries within the care sector are not recognised as industrial injuries in the same way as carpal tunnel syndrome or occupational deafness are. As a result, many women are being ‘retired into poverty’ because they are no longer fit for work before they reach state pension age. 

The report raises the voices of women on the front line of social care, shining a light on the far-reaching impact of working conditions. Improving these conditions isn’t just fair, it’s key to helping the Scottish Government achieve its priorities and tackle the long-standing undervaluation of ‘women’s work’. 

Read the full research report - Voices from the Front Line: Social care workers in Scotland.

Beyond Scotland: what does childcare look like elsewhere?

Over the past year, the Scottish Women’s Budget Group has been exploring different aspects of Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) policy in Scotland: from affordability to flexibility (or lack thereof) of services, to the economic impact of investing in childcare (both in the short and long term). While these webinars have touched on some international examples of best practice, the last event of the series sought to address a question left untouched: what does childcare look like elsewhere? The webinar heard from speakers from Canada, France and Estonia.

Third order change. Childcare developments in Canada.

Susan Prentice, Duff Roblin Professor of Government at the University of Manitoba, kicked us off with an overview of the latest developments in Canada’s childcare system. Up until 2021, Canada was one of the lowest spenders on ECL among OECD countries: there was no country-wide programme, no entitlement, no plan for building a system, and limited public funding. High fees and low overall access were two of the most notorious features of the system, which offered no public provision of any kind.

Following decades of advocacy efforts and as a consequence of the pressures created by Covid, in 2021 the Government published its Canada-wide Early Learning and Childcare Plan (CWELCC), alongside its federal budget of 2021. It committed to building a system of affordable, inclusive, high quality “early learning and childcare for all” children below school age, backed by $30 billion to be spent over 5 years. The provinces and territories were responsible for the implementation of CWELCC. While differential approaches were taken, one the plan’s key features – the promotion of affordable childcare at a cost of $10/day to parents – has been delivered across the country. Similarly to what we saw in the previous webinar on ‘Is investing in childcare worth it?’, the economic returns of this investment are clear and quantifiable. For example, studies in Quebec have found returns on investment of more than $3.50 for every $1 spent on childcare.

But the question that Susan really wanted us to reflect on was... is this the type of radical and rare shift in policy (or “third order change”) that Paul Cairney, Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the University of Stirling refers to in his book ‘Understanding Public Policy’? And, in addition, will CWELCC become part of Canada’s social infrastructure?

Susan shared that the rollout of the policy has been messy. While federal conditions were clearly set out to ensure “affordability”, there was less clarity around expansion, inclusion, workforce recruitment and the quality of care available. Parallel to this, there is the paradox that low prices created “induced demand” and, with this, a perception that the policy is failing – this is being exploited by the Government’s opposition. And while limiting childcare costs to $10/day might remain in place under a different Government, other crucial objectives of the policy – such as the expansion of services through non-profits and public delivery, or stabilizing the childcare workforce – will most likely disappear from (a likely) new Government’s list of priorities, and with it, the idea of this policy being an example of ‘third order’ change.

Childcare in France

France’s childcare system is not exempt from challenges. Our second speaker, Nathalie Casso-Vicarini, an early childhood educator and the founder and managing director of the association “Ensemble pour la petite enfance”, stressed that the debate about public versus private childcare provision is a hot topic in the country. The level of public funding provided is 50%, with families contributing an amount depending on their financial circumstances, making the system affordable. Yet only 5% of children living under the poverty line have access to childcare centres. This very low level of access is a problem, as child poverty affects 1 in 5 children in France.

The French system relies on public and private settings, with a market share of 70% and 30% respectively. However, private settings are made up of big companies which sacrifice quality of care in pursuit of profit. In terms of accessibility of childcare, services are available to children from 10 weeks old to three years of age. While this level of access is positive, having the best interest of the child at heart means offering a nurturing environment as well, and for this, the training requirements of the workforce are key. In this regard and following on from the ‘First 1000 Days’ commission set up by President Macron in 2019, France has developed a framework to regulate the quality of care across all social services, including children’s services.

One example of evidence-based best practice in France is the ‘Houses of the first 1000 days’ (the Maisons des 1,000 Premiers Jours), a network of centers that support parents and young children from conception to two years old. 80% of couples join this network, which, among other objectives, aims at reducing mothers’ feelings of isolation which is a risk factor for children’s development.

Despite initiatives such as this and the wider focus on improving quality of care, France’s journey towards a childcare system that delivers more equitable outcomes is an unfinished task. Nathalie’s organisation sees the following five steps as a prerequisite to reach this objective:

• Better maternity and paternity policies (minimum of 6 months at 80% of the salary);
• Building confidence with all families through the ‘Houses of the first 1000 days’ with the aim of tackling poverty;
• Ensuring that the ELC workforce have access to high quality training;
• Providing access to public and affordable childcare for all children from the age of 6 months;
• Ensuring access in both rural and urban areas; and
• Continued evaluation of care quality by analysing data to ensure progress.

Is Estonia’s kindergarten model the way to go?

Ulle Matsin, Head of the Educational Policy Department at the Ministry of Education and Research in Estonia, explored the reasons behind Estonia’s strong performance in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), pointing towards the country’s quality of preschool education, which is an integral part of the country’s educational system.

Pre-school education is primarily delivered to children between the ages of 18 months to 7 years in specially dedicated educational institutions: mainly kindergartens, but also general education schools with kindergarten groups. However, the country also has childcare service providers (the majority of which are private). Pre-school education involves a learning curriculum and substantive methodological activities. Regarding costs, local government sets the fees for children attending kindergarten, which need to be covered by parents alongside food costs. However, fees cannot exceed 20% of the country’s minimum salary as set out by the Government.

Because not all families are able to get a place in a kindergarten, the Government is working to align the quality of childcare services. A new draft of Estonia’s Early Childhood Education Act has been submitted to the country’s Parliament for this purpose. Once the reviewed Act passes, all childcare services (the majority of which are private providers) will be under the control of the Ministry of Education and Research, meaning that childcare services will need to meet the same quality standards as kindergartens. This piece of legislation also aims to ensure that special support is provided in kindergartens to children with additional support needs, as already happens in school age settings.

Conclusion

This webinar shone a light on the importance placed on the affordability of childcare in the three countries discussed. It reinforced the possibilities that affordable childcare can provide for women’s employment and for the state in the form of additional tax revenues through expanded parental employment. Indeed, Canada’s recent developments should serve as a reminder that investing in social infrastructure pays off. Yet, despite progress being made, most countries are grappling with different issues, the most common of which seems to be ensuring equitable access to childcare and ensuring high quality of care is provided. Estonia’s efforts to ensure both these issues are addressed should serve as an example of what can be achieved when Governments’ determination is put to test.

You can review the previous webinars in this series here:

Scottish Women’s Budget Group | SWBG blog | What’s wrong with childcare in Scotland? A summary
Scottish Women’s Budget Group | SWBG blog | Flexible childcare, an ideal or a necessity? A summary
Scottish Women’s Budget Group | SWBG blog | Is investing in childcare worth it? A summary

This webinar series is supported by Oxfam Scotland