Emergency childcare made available to parents in performing arts

Parents in the performing arts will have access to emergency and flexible childcare, school holiday cover and back-up eldercare in addition to other resources through a new pilot programme.

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The pilot involves a partnership between Parents and Carers in Performing Arts [PIPA] and care provider My Family Care and will begin in the new year.

The resources include flexible, ad-hoc childcare, school holiday cover, back-up adult and eldercare, support over care choices and being a dad resources as well as expert advice, webinar and insider guides.

PIPA says that the unpredictable nature of the profession makes the package ideal for parents and carers in the performing arts.

The PIPA My Family Care Pilot will be open to Equity and Spotlight members as well as referred individuals from PIPA Strategic Partners. Signing up to the pilot will allow users to access ad hoc nursery places, registered childminders, vetted nannies, school holiday cover and back-up adult and eldercare all across the UK, even at the last minute.

Robert Ashby, Executive Director of Actors’ Children’s Trust said that “actor-parents are encouraged to contact ACT to see if they are eligible for childcare funding.”

Cassie Raine, Co-founder of PIPA, said: “PIPA research has highlighted the need for UK wide, ad-hoc, flexible care, without which the performing arts caring workforce will continue to struggle. The PIPA Balancing Act survey identified a workforce reliant on family and partners to provide ad-hoc childcare. Not only is this is unsustainable, for many it is unavailable and results in missed work opportunities.

“We are very excited to work with My Family Care, Equity and Spotlight, on making this invaluable resource, widely used by corporate employers, accessible to an industry with unsociable and unpredictable working patterns. We encourage as many eligible people to sign up to the trial as possible so we can get a clear understanding of the need and how the scheme can be developed further.”

Earlier this week the actor Cary Mulligan called for childcare on film sets to help parents working in the film industry.

*The PIPA scheme will run from 1st January 2019 till 31st of December 2019. To register interest Equity and Spotlight members need to email info@pipacampaign.com, with the subject title PIPA MFC Pilot, as places are limited.