Childcare: parents need options
13 April, 2005
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Childcare: parents need options
Wednesday 13 April, 2005
Herald Sun
Is the best solution for working parents and their children our current childcare system?
The increasing dependence on centre-based childcare is a demonstration of how little notice we are taking of the debates about work-life balance. Our society needs to offer more alternatives instead of wasting money on a system that isn’t working.
I do not under-estimate the intentions and work childcare operators and workers do, but the fact remains children’s experiences in childcare centres are limited. And, parents’ experiences of placing their children in care are often difficult and guilt ridden.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data since 1980 shows that the number of children in care has not changed significantly. For the last 25 years the percentage of children in care has hovered between 45-50 per cent.
What has changed is the type of care those children are in. When once it was informal arrangements with family, neighbours or friends, now most children are cared for in centre-based care.
Where once community cared for children many are now cared for in childcare centres. The impact of this is not questioned.
The childcare system is struggling. Childcare conglomerates are under constant attack about the quality of care they provide. There is a raft of workforce development issues: skill development, recruitment, retention. And the demand for service is spiralling.
The many problems mean childcare is a sinkhole for government expenditure – if we choose that path.
Demanding more childcare places is simplistic solution. We need to ask: Is this the right way to go? Is this form of care best for our children and us?
This month, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services will start looking at submissions from the public on work-family balance. The committee should listen closely to their Chair, Bronwyn Bishop. In a recent interview with Investigate magazine she pointed to developments in France where subsidised childcare takes place in children’s homes. She is asking for greater options for Australian parents; for a level of flexibility to match the diverse work-life arrangements that families have.
Currently, the options are so limited that current childcare subsidy is simply feeding a couple of highly profitable companies. Why not provide more diverse service options and give parents real market control? Let them decide exactly the kind of care they want for their money: in a centre, in their home or at a friend’s place.
Raising children isn’t a part-time affair, but it also isn’t the full-time responsibility of parents. There is nothing wrong with placing the responsibility of raising children back on the community. But, we need to be prepared to offer more solutions than the current childcare system offers.
Don Edgar offers further options in his book released on 1 April, The War over Work. He believes business needs to take greater responsibility for providing childcare services and innovative work-family arrangements. For the benefit of the company bottom-line and our communities as a whole.
At the end of the day, all parents would prefer to be home with their kids. This should be what informs our discussions about childcare.
Child Psychiatrist, Peter Cook has argued in the Medical Journal of Australia that our policy approach to childcare needs a rethink. “Perhaps ‘How can we provide quality childcare for everybody?’ asks the wrong question.” Cook suggests we ask, “How can we best help and support those parents who wish to do a mutually satisfying job of mothering and fathering their infants and young children without jeopardising their own futures?”
It isn’t a bad idea. We are all so focussed on work that our children are coming second, in a second-rate childcare system. If we shift the focus back to being parents, rather than employees we will most likely argue for more diverse childcare options and work out ways to get it.
Centre-based care is far from the best solution to the work-family balance issues we face. Parents must demand a greater variety of options. Lets start to explore them for the benefit of parents and children alike.
Daniel Donahoo is a Fellow at OzProspect, a non-partisan, public policy think tank.