The Women's Equality Party this week questioned the government's commitment to 'build, build, build' its way out of the economic challenges left by the COVID-19 crisis.

Boris Johnson's announcement of the 'New Deal for Britain' focuses on physical infrastructure such as new hospitals, roads, schools, and housing.

However, research by the Women's Budget Group indicates that investing in social infrastructure would generate twice as many jobs as investment in physical infrastructure.

Social infrastructure includes all the services that provide healthcare, education, long-term care and childcare.

In a new report, A Care-Led Recovery from Coronavirus, the Women's Budget Group concludes that a net investment of around 2.5% of GDP in childcare and social care would create over 2 million jobs and increase overall employment by over 5 percentage points.

Schools have been offered some financial support to help with the crisis, but in 2019 headteachers were already estimating a shortfall in funding of £5.7bn, and Cheshire East is one of the lowest per-pupil-funded areas according to the National Funding Formula for schools.

Research by the Childcare online platform indicates that as many as 10,000 nurseries in the UK are threatened with closure as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Susan Mead, who runs Friendly Faces Day Nursery in Congleton, said: "There is now serious concern that the nursery isn't viable anymore and we may have to close.

"We have new limits on how many we can have which also impacts viability. We didn't get any extra funding for remaining open for key-workers' children only. The future for our nursery is dire."

Kay Wesley, Women's Equality Party Cheshire East Co-Leader and a Congleton Town Councillor, said: "Boris Johnson's strategy throughout has completely ignored the needs of families with children.

"Now the government has told everyone to go back to work with no support whatsoever for childcare.

"This sector, which relies on small private companies running on a shoestring, which receives less per 'funded' child from the government than it costs to look after that child, had no reserves to fall back on in this crisis.

"As well as the impact on the businesses themselves there is a huge knock-on effect on the parents who are unable to work without childcare."

The social care system bore the brunt of COVID-19 with over 19,000 deaths from the virus in care homes (ONS).

There has been a staffing crisis in the sector for years, and The Health Foundation estimated in 2019 that there are over 122,000 vacancies in social care. The sector is heavily reliant on international recruitment and employs a quarter of a million people from outside the UK.

Wesley commented: "Here in Cheshire East we have a higher proportion of elderly people in our population than in the country in general, so social care services are vital.

"The government has failed to address the crisis in social care and now is closing the door to international recruitment with the immigration bill, which will make things worse.

"Local authorities tasked with providing this service report critical funding gaps. It is time national government invested properly in this sector to support people who need care and pay those who provide it a living wage."

The NHS has also been at the front line of tackling the COVID-19 crisis, but it too is short of about 100,000 staff.

The government missed its target set in 2015 to recruit 5000 more GPs; there are now fewer GPs than in 2015. According to The Health Foundation "Nursing remains the key area of shortage - of over 40,000 - and this could double by 2023/24".

Wesley added: "The NHS has been dependent on overseas recruitment, but the number of nurses joining the NHS from the EU has plummeted since the Brexit vote.

"Furthermore, the government has failed to train the home-grown nursing staff it promised and removed the nurses' training bursary.

"Town Councillors and other campaigners have been trying for years to get the War Memorial Hospital's Minor Injuries Unit open full-time for the people of Congleton.

"The NHS Trust has told us repeatedly that there are no plans to close the unit, but the frequent closures and lack of service have been entirely due to a shortage of nursing staff. This lack of investment in nursing is a government decision. Why?"

Also included in social infrastructure is domestic abuse prevention and support services.

In the last full year, Cheshire East saw over 4500 reports of domestic abuse and 937 of domestic violence.

According to Sandra Horley, Chief Executive of Refuge, "Calls to the Helpline have risen to a weekly average increase of 66% and visits to our website have seen a phenomenal 950% rise compared to pre COVID-19".

Wesley added: "Even before the crisis we had 250 families a year affected by domestic abuse in Congleton, but we don't have the funding for a Domestic Abuse Hub which would be the first port of call for families needing support to avoid escalation.

"The Domestic Abuse Bill is currently going through parliament, but it will not be worth the paper it is written on if the government does not provide substantial new funding to implement it."

Wesley pointed out that a lack of social infrastructure drives gender inequality.

"Women make up the majority of teachers, nurses and social care workers and are twice as likely to be victims of domestic abuse.

"It was women who did most of the home-schooling during the COVID lockdown. When care systems break down, it is overwhelmingly the women who give up their paid work to pick up the pieces.

"Boris Johnson's 'build, build, build' plan is a 'jobs for the boys' agenda that disadvantages women.

"But more than this, investment in social as well as physical infrastructure would better meet the needs of our local community and at the same time create many more jobs."