A Caring Wales

The undervaluing of care is perhaps the clearest example, and is our current focus here at Oxfam Cymru.

Millions of us across Cymru, the UK, and globally, provide paid and unpaid care, and undertake unpaid domestic work in the home, all of which is vital for the wellbeing of our families and for societies. This work is essential for our economies to function.

Lack of recognition means not enough practical and financial support is given to unpaid carers and parents. It means low pay and poor working conditions for care workers. It means over-stretched and under-funded childcare and adult care services.

Carers, and those experiencing care, are often left to pay the highest price. Many face deep financial hardship and poverty, as well as great physical and emotional stress.

This invisible network, of mostly women, whose compassion to care is systemically taken for granted, is often ignored by society and exploited by a world built on a premise of inequality.

It doesn't have to be this way. That’s why, here in Cymru, we’re pushing policymakers to make better choices that recognise the true value that care brings to all of our lives, as part of efforts to better value all work done by women.

One key area is childcare.

In 2023, Oxfam Cymru research revealed that a lack of affordable, available childcare in Cymru is trapping parents in poverty or leaving them on the edge of poverty, whilst also having significant impacts on parents’ mental health, careers and future family plans.

It’s overwhelmingly women who are paying this price, with mothers forced to reduce their working hours or give up work entirely in order to care for their children, further entrenching poverty and gender inequality across Cymru.

We’re calling for an overhaul of the Welsh Government’s existing funded childcare schemes, guided by an independent Advisory Group, to ensure that any future roll out of funded childcare across Wales meets parents’ needs while simultaneously delivering the Government’s anti-poverty and gender equality ambitions.

Read our report, Little Steps, Big Struggles, Childcare in Wales, here.

Today, our entire economy fails to correctly value the work mainly done by women, particularly unpaid care and domestic work.

That needs to change. That’s why we’re calling on the Welsh Government to set a new economic strategy, with a clear vision for the economy it wants to see in Cymru.

Together with our partners, the Institute of Welsh Affairs, we have laid out a series of ideas and actions the Welsh Government can take to build a greener, fairer, more caring country.

Read our joint report, A Wales That Cares for People and Planet, here.