This week, we ran the first session of our confidence building programme with mothers in the North East Inner City.

The focus was simple: preparing to return to work.

Over the past number of weeks, we have also been gathering data from mothers on their experiences of accessing employment. The findings point to something very clear. Mothers want to work, or increase their working hours, but many are navigating barriers that make this difficult in practice.

Confidence is one of those barriers.

Returning to work is not only about opportunity. It is also about readiness. For many mothers, that means rebuilding confidence, understanding available pathways, and feeling equipped to re-engage with employment after time away.

This is where preparation begins.

What We Are Seeing on the Ground

What is becoming visible through both the survey and the first session of the programme is not a lack of interest in work, but something much more complex, and in many ways much more practical.

There is a clear willingness among mothers to return to employment, and that willingness is not tentative or conditional, it is direct, consistent, and grounded in a real need for financial independence and participation. The data supports this, with the vast majority of respondents expressing a desire to work, but what becomes equally clear alongside this is that wanting to work and being able to access work are not the same thing.

The gap between those two things is where most of the difficulty sits.

Childcare continues to play a central role in this, not only in terms of cost and availability, although both remain significant, but in how it aligns, or more accurately fails to align, with the structure of employment. Even where childcare can be secured, it does not necessarily fit with working hours, and what follows is not a simple solution but a layering of arrangements that families are expected to manage privately in order to make work possible at all.

At the same time, the structure of available roles does not reflect the realities of caregiving, and this came through both in the survey and in the session itself. There is a clear demand for school hour roles, part time opportunities, and flexible arrangements, not as a preference in the abstract, but as a condition for participation. Without these, the option to work remains out of reach, regardless of motivation.

Confidence also sits within this space, and it is not separate from these structural issues, even if it is often treated as such. When someone has been out of the workforce for a period of time, navigating fragmented systems, limited opportunities, and constant logistical barriers, confidence does not simply remain intact. It is shaped by those conditions, and in many cases reduced by them.

What this creates is a situation where mothers are ready to work, but are doing so within a set of constraints that make access uncertain, inconsistent, and in some cases impossible.

What We Are Building in Response

Returning to work does not begin with opportunity alone, and this is something that became very evident in the first session of the programme. There is a step before that, which is often overlooked, and it has to do with preparation, confidence, and having space to even begin thinking about work again in a realistic way.

The programme we have started to develop is grounded in that understanding.

The first session was facilitated by Caroline Murphy, whose approach brought both depth and a quiet reassurance to the space, allowing conversations around confidence and returning to work to unfold in a way that felt realistic rather than overwhelming. This was not about quick fixes or immediate outcomes, but about creating a starting point where mothers could begin to see themselves as part of the workforce again.

From here, the programme is being shaped around what is actually needed, rather than what is typically offered.

In the coming weeks, we are planning to bring in career coaches to work directly with mothers, including one to one sessions that focus on individual pathways back into employment. Alongside this, we are engaging with education providers to explore what learning opportunities exist that can be accessed within school hours, particularly for those considering upskilling from September.

As the programme develops further, there will be a focus on practical preparation, including interview skills, financial literacy, and wellbeing, alongside additional workshops such as CV support, depending on what continues to emerge as needed.

This is not a fixed structure, but a needs led approach that will continue to evolve.

At the same time, this work is being developed while funding is still being secured, which reflects a broader reality of how programmes like this come into existence.

What is already evident, however, is that mothers are preparing to return to work. They are engaging, building confidence, and taking steps toward participation.

The question that follows is whether opportunities will develop alongside that preparation.

We would welcome engagement with employers who are open to exploring flexible, part time, or school hour roles that reflect the realities of caregiving, and who are willing to be part of creating pathways that currently do not exist at the scale required.

When Preparation Meets Opportunity

What is already happening is that mothers are preparing.

They are showing up, engaging with the process, rebuilding confidence, and taking steps toward returning to work, even in the absence of clear or consistent pathways. That work is real, and it is already underway.

The question is whether opportunity will develop alongside it.

Because preparation on its own is not enough if the structures around it remain unchanged. If employment continues to be organised in a way that does not reflect the realities of care, then the gap between readiness and access will remain, regardless of how much effort is made on an individual level.

What is needed is not only support for mothers to return to work, but a shift in how that return is made possible in practice.

Until those two things move together, preparation and opportunity, many mothers will continue to find themselves ready, but without a clear place to go.

This article is part of Karla’s wider series exploring care, work and economic security for mothers across Europe and Ireland.