I read an article in this morning’s edition of the Daily Mail, which made me really angry.

The article was about two working mothers, close friends who work at the same firm. The two friends gave birth to their daughters around the same time, and decide to return to work part-time once their children had turned one years old. They agreed to job share and to watch each others child, while the other was at work, thus negating the need to pay for childcare.

Doesn’t this sound like the perfect arrangement? The women had the satisfaction of working part-time and earning an income, while being able to spend quality time with their child. The friends were able to help each other out by providing free childcare for one another, safe in the knowledge that their child was with a trusted friend and had the company of a peer. Perfect.

However, it pains me to tell you that these women were, in fact, breaking the law with their informal arrangement. Little-known rules state that friends cannot gain ‘reward’ by looking after a child for more than two hours outside the child’s home without registering with the education watchdog, Ofsted, and agreeing to a number of checks, including one from the Criminal Records Bureau.

Although money did not exchange hands between the women, they are deemed to be in receipt of a ‘reward’ in the form of a reciprocal arrangement. This is alarming news for the thousands of working families across the country who rely on informal childcare arrangements with friends. These rules affect close friends, but not relatives, who do not have to register with Ofsted.

One of the things which made me really angry about this article, was that the women were reported to Ofsted by a whistleblower. Now these women have been banned from looking after each other’s children and forced to put their daughters into official childcare. This will have reduced their income substantially because, as any working parent knows, childcare costs are very expensive.

How that whistleblower can sleep at night is anyone’s guess! What good did it do to report these women? They were not doing anyone any harm. They’re just two women who wanted to work to contribute to the costs of running a home. This arrangement suited them, their children and their employer. So where’s the harm in that?

Children’s Minister Vernon Coaker says, “The legislation is in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children. But we need to be sure that it doesn’t penalise hard-working families.”

My feelings are that, although well-meaning, this bureaucracy and red tape, is yet another hurdle for women who choose to return to the workplace after having children. By enforcing these rules, the authorities are in fact discouraging women from returning to work, and instead encouraging them to stay at home and claim benefits.

I am very lucky to have my family close by to help with my childcare arrangements. I took a year off work after having my twin daughters, before returning to my job on a part-time basis. My in-laws watched the girls for me, while I was at work. I returned to full-time hours last year, and was able to pay for some additional hours to their free nursery provision, by means of childcare vouchers from my employer. My in-laws looked after them the remainder of the time. Now the girls are at school, and are collected by my in-laws twice a week, and in After School Care the remainder of the week. Three days After School Care for two children still amounts to over #200.00 per month.

Not every mother is as lucky as me to have their family on hand to help with the childcare arrangements. These rules and regulations are, in fact, prejudice against mothers who have no family support network.

What do you think? Do you agree/disagree? Have you ever made any informal childcare arrangements? Are you as outraged as me at the treatment of these two mothers? Or do you agree with the Ofsted regulations?

Please join me and over 1,600 others, in signing a Downing Street petition in protest at the women’s treatment at: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/reciprocalcc/

You can read the full Daily Mail article here.