30th October is Equal Pay Day

Nearly 40 years since the Equal Pay Act of 1970, women working full-time across the UK still earn on average 17% less an hour than men working full-time.

30th October is effectively the day that British women receive their last payslip of the year, because the 17.1% full-time pay gap is equivalent to men being paid all year round, while women work for free after 30th October..

Get involved! Get equality!
http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=23

Government response re. Ofsted's threat to prosecute women indulging in reciprocal childcare (following a 20,000 signature petition):

The Childcare Act 2006 requires anyone providing ‘childcare for reward’ to register with Ofsted, with the aim of ensuring every child in a commercial childcare service is safe and well cared for. Parents would expect no less. However, our intention has always been that friends and families caring for children through informal arrangements should be exempt from having to register and we believed that was what always happened. In the light of this recent case we are talking to Ofsted about how we can make sure there’s a shared understanding with Ofsted, and with parents, of what the law means and how it should interpreted.

Since 1997 we have invested £25bn in childcare and early years services, doubling the number of childcare places available for children under 8 to support working families and providing more support than ever before with childcare costs, with over £3.8 million a day going directly into parents hands to help pay for childcare through tax credits.