What influences mothers’ decisions about returning to work after having a baby? Understanding the role of childcare in returning to employment – an Understanding Society and Coram Family and Childcare briefing

Summary

We know that employment rates of mothers in the UK are much lower than those of fathers or women without dependent children. For some women, this difference is down to personal choice, but difficulties in finding affordable childcare or making work pay may also be affecting the decisions women make about returning to work.

To delve deeper into this issue we combined data from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, with data held by Coram Family and Childcare on local childcare prices. We looked at women in the UK from the year before they had a baby to up to three years afterwards to investigate what could be influencing their choices about paid work.