102. How Kada Helped York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Understand and Address Economic Inactivity Among Women Who Care and Study
As part of the government’s Get Britain Working Economic Inactivity Trailblazer, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA) set out to understand why so many women across the region are locked out of the labour market by caring responsibilities and study. Existing evidence already pointed to caring as a recognised, but under-served, barrier to work – YNYCA wanted lived experience to sit alongside that evidence, to understand not just that caring is a barrier, but how and why.
YNYCA commissioned Kada Research to carry out in-depth qualitative research with women who had first-hand experience of being out of paid work due to caring and/or studying, to explore the interactions between caring, study and work, as well as what holds women back, and what support would help them move into or return to work.
Over two phases, Kada engaged 41 women from across the region: 20 through in-depth interviews in Phase 1, and a further 21 through focus groups in Phase 2, reaching across six local authority districts and coastal, urban, town and rural communities. Participants were reached through information events with sector partners and an open expression-of-interest process, with eligibility checks used to ensure a representative mix of caring and studying circumstances.
The research found that caring is often an invisible, round-the-clock role that most women do not identify with – meaning they miss out on the very support designed for carers. Barriers to work rarely arrive alone: time poverty, transport, employer inflexibility and the financial reality that work often “doesn’t pay” once care costs are factored in, combine and compound, particularly for women in rural and coastal areas, parents of children with additional needs, refugee women, and those caring for both children and elderly relatives at once. Yet the study also found that study and volunteering act as genuine lifelines, restoring identity and confidence, and that the overwhelming majority of women want to work, given flexibility, affordable childcare or respite, and recognition of the skills that caring itself builds.
These findings translated into a clear set of delivery levers for YNYCA’s Trailblazer programme, including an employer support offer to help design flexible and inclusive roles, a single “front door” bringing together advice on work, skills and caring, sustainable funding for community and voluntary organisations, and childcare and wage support to ensure that work genuinely pays.
If you are thinking about commissioning a similar study, or would like to find out more about this study, talk through an idea or work with us, please get in touch at info@kadaresearch.co.uk
