Campaign to tackle 'invisible barrier' to work for parents and carers

Fresh efforts are being made to support freelancers with caring responsibilities, as a new return-to-work initiative is being created.

The as-yet-unnamed campaign is being developed by freelance director Sarah Meadows and chief executive of Theatre Bristol, Emily Williams, who hope to encourage companies and businesses in the arts sector to join the initiative.

The pair, who both have children, have started work on the scheme to help freelancers after growing concerns were raised by individuals who were afraid to take time off to have children or who had to conceal they had children or caring responsibilities in case it impacted their careers. 

Meadows said: "The goal is we set this up with a format that we can then gift for free to companies who we will support and help in facilitating it."

Meadows is spearheading the campaign after results from a survey she conducted while working with Fuel Theatre and a report commissioned by Parents and Carers in Performing Arts (PiPA) in 2021 highlighted vital gaps in education, support and awareness around those with parenting and/or caring responsibilities and those who employ them. 

The pair are running focus groups and will conduct their first in-person workshop in Bristol next month. Conversation points already raised include freelancers returning to work after three months compared to an average of nine months for employed staff, and freelance individuals not being able to afford to return to work due to the cost of childcare and childcare responsibilities.

Williams added: "We are trying to create a very different culture of honesty, openness and being celebratory of children, even with the challenges they provide."

She added that an "open, honest dialogue around all stresses will help inform companies like us to support freelancers and independents better". 

The campaign is backed by Parents and Carers in Performing Arts, whose chief executive Anna Ehnold-Danailov, said: "Parents and carers have already been hit so hard by Covid, and now, with the cost-of-living crisis and high inflation, it’s just getting harder and harder to stay in the industry."

She added: "It’s a whole backslide on inclusion and diversity."

"Those who don’t have the social or financial capital to stay in the arts leave, and then you are losing a really important group of people. It’s those with a disability, single parents, people from a lower socio-economic background. It’s everybody who is already struggling and who now don’t have the means to stay – so the arts are basically getting less and less colourful."

Ehnold-Danailov said greater discussions are now happening within arts organisations, with many in the sector accessing PiPA’s framework and resources. However, she said the "invisible barrier" was still there for salaried staff, as well as heavily impacting freelancers.

She added: "I think parents are really questioning their life choices – basically voting with their feet and looking for careers elsewhere."

Meadows and Williams encourage those who have been impacted and who would like to be involved in upcoming discussions to get in touch via social media or to email emily@theatrebristol.net