This summer, things could be a little bit easier for mothers and parents working at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden. It’s set to open a nursery, the “first dedicated, on-site childcare facility at a U.K. studio,” Variety reports. The program will offer “40-50 places to both Warner Bros. staff and productions shooting at the studio. Crucially, the nursery will hold flexible hours in order to meet the demand of extended production schedules,” the source adds.
The nursery will be located at Warner Bros. Leavesden Park, and will care for infants and children up to the age of five. Productions scheduled to shoot at Leavesden are recommended to book slots at the nursery ahead of time. Spaces can be subsidized. “Overall, there is a two-tier system, with coverage for standard nursery hours and extended hours for production staff,” Variety details. “Payment is based on market day rates and flexes up as days get longer.”
Warner Bros. Leavesden’s childcare facility was spearheaded by “Trust” actress Charlotte Riley, her business partner Mark Radcliffe, and Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden vp Emily Stillman.
As Riley said, childcare and support for working parents are inextricably linked to gender equality. “You can support all the opportunities for women you want but if you don’t support women when they’re bearing fruit creatively and personally, there is no point providing them with opportunities,” the “Press” star observed, “because you’re not supporting them through their child-rearing years as well.”
Riley is no stranger to the childcare movement: she, with Radcliffe, formed WonderWorks, a childcare firm for those in the creative sector, after returning to work following the birth of her first child. Because she was a cast member, her needs as a working mother were addressed — but the same could not be said of the crew.
“It was blindingly obvious that people were struggling with this. There were so many people who’d just left [the industry] because there was no way of making family life and film life work,” Riley recalled. “Although I was seeing diversity with more young women [in the workforce], what’s happening is that people are having to sacrifice having a family in order to maintain a job they’ve worked hard to get in a male-dominated department.”
Via WonderWorks, Riley will introduce a mobile nursery this summer. Designed to serve film and TV sets all over the UK, the program will be held in a double-decker bus.
“When you think about trying to manage a family, how can a childcare facility cope with split days, night shoots, schedule changes, or last-minute changes?” Stillman asked. “The project that [Riley and Radcliffe] put together … is a purpose-built facility for the film industry. For us, that made a huge difference.”
In a 2018 survey of 640 workers across the UK film industry, advocacy group Raising Films found that 79 percent of respondents reported that “their career had felt a negative impact due to parenting and caring duties.”
According to Riley, because of the lack of childcare infrastructure in the UK film and TV, workers are shamed if they’re “not prepared to make sacrifices” — i.e. if they’re not willing to give up time with their families for career opportunities. She continued, “U.K. production is booming like never before. And yet we are losing swathes of people because there are very, very few people who can manage parenthood and film.”
Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden’s announcement follows close on the heels of Berlinale hosting “its first creche for filmmakers and delegates” at its 2020 edition. The festival wrapped up March 1. Cannes, Venice, TIFF, and San Sebastian offered similar services at their most recent fests. The former is expected to provide childcare again this year.
