Very few European offices welcome kids, or have childcare. Yet, workplaces in a near future might be different.
Big tech is known to support workers with children. In the US, for example, google funds nurseries for children of employees. In the EU, Cisco also enables workers to access on-site childcare. So… what about startups? Workspaces rarely support so. Yet, things might change. Below, will introduce a few of Europe’s offices with childcare.
The above problem seems concerning when looking at statistics. For example, dogs are allowed in about half of the EU’s coworking offices. Yet, for children the numbers decrease drastically. About 25% of such spaces allow children, and only 2% offer childcare. Such can impact women, and workplace diversity.
Over the last years, several coworking spaces have started to reverse this trend. Europe now has numerous facilities which are “parent-frienly”. Some illustrative cases are Incubyte in Cambridge (UK), and CoFamily Coworking in Granada (Spain). Interestingly, these offer much more than just childcare. For example, Incubyte is inserted into a new approach to workspaces. The space has a gym and a coffee shop.
Regarding Europe’s offices with childcare, Italy’s a hotspot. The country has one of the highest numbers of child-friendly coworking spaces. Examples are Spazio Co-stanza in Florence, or Qf and Cobaby in Milan. Qf even includes a space dedicated to mental wellbeing, offering sessions with therapists.
How governments can help
States can also play a role, in supporting childcare for startup workers. An example is what happened with JuggleHUB, a childcare business. The service is based in Berlin, and offers flexible subscriptions.
At the beginning, JuggleHUB didn’t have much success. This was due to the fact that Germany offers free childcare to its inhabitants. Yet, such changed in 2019. The German Youth Welfare Office started refunding parents, if the latter aren’t offered state-supported daycare.
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