Many parents find that the cost of childcare can make it difficult – even impossible – to afford to return to work, increase their hours or start a training course. Parent Tanoh Kouassi explains how the council’s bursary scheme helped her bridge the gap

I’m a single mum and I have a daughter, Hope, who’s 11. I was working in market research and when that contract ended, I wasn’t thinking it would take long to get another job. But it did – I went four months without working. I could manage for a few weeks, but after that it started to become hard.

I went on Islington’s iWork website, registered, saw all the jobs and applied for some of them, and got a call from an iWork advisor. She said she saw my CV and that I’ve got a lot of potential. I got a position at a children’s centre, but I needed to pick up my daughter earlier than the job allowed. From there, iWork took over and helped me find a way around it, through the use of the childcare bursary.

The bursary is short-term, but enables you to start work while looking for a long-term solution. It paid for childcare that allowed me to start earlier and finish later. Normally I’d have to pick Hope up at 3pm; with the bursary, I was able to work till 5–5.30pm.

I was really happy about the bursary – it made applying for work easier, because I had that cushion. Without it, maybe I would have put it on a credit card and tried to pay it back. In the worst case I would have been short of money.

I’ve now found a permanent role as an administrator. It’s been hard, but things are much better now.

For more on the childcare bursary, visit: islington.gov.uk/childcarebursary or to get in touch with iWork, call 020 7527 2706