Childcare workers tend to be poorly paid, many are untrained and most lack Garda clearance, as that programme is only now being developed. Kate Holmquist reports.
Who: Childcare workers
What they want: Training, fair pay and conditions
Staff should have a consistent pay scale related to compulsory, standardised training, recommends the Dublin City Childcare committee and the Dublin Inner City Partnership, which has just published two studies on pay and conditions for childcare workers.
Currently, untrained staff recruited on labour market programmes such as the Community Employment and Jobs Initiative make up a large proportion of staff in public childcare facilities. Starting pay in publicly funded facilities ranges from €15,488 to €25,348; pay for managers from €26,000 to €47,000. Average pay for qualified staff in private creches belonging to the National Children's Nurseries Association is €18,566 and for unqualified staff €17,662.
Only one in 12 childcare facilities offer health insurance and maternity leave "top-up" salary, while two-fifths have no written human resources policies. Workers should be made aware of their rights and managers given the administrative and human resources training many currently lack.
Childcare staff have a higher than average sickness rates, so employers should consider providing vaccinations for workers.
Who: National Children's Nurseries Association
What they want: Subsidies, capital investment, tax allowances, a 10-year early childhood care and education strategy
Running a quality service costs €250 per week per child and they say it's a myth that providing more places would create competition that would bring down cost, since most of the fee goes toward paying staff, the number of which are determined by childcare regulations. (Fees currently range from €130 to €250 per week per child.)
For the first year of the child's life, mothers should be allowed to bond with their babies over eight months' paid maternity leave, followed by an additional four months paid parental leave, which the father could take if the couple prefers.
They say employers should be enabled to subsidise employees' childcare costs to a maximum of €100 per week, without employees having to pay benefit-in-kind tax and without employers needing to be involved in provision of the childcare service.
The State should subsidise cost to parents by allowing creches to charge on a sliding scale fee system, with the State paying the balance regardless of whether the facility is private, community or workplace.
Parents who pay the full cost of childcare while working, or in education or training should be given a deductible tax credit, as recommended by the National Childcare Strategy (1999).
Parents who cannot afford to pay should be helped through a national contingency fund.
Who: Childminders Ireland
What they want: Encouragement for more childminders to register and participate in training
Allowing childminders a tax credit of €10,000 per year would encourage more to register.
Childminders who are social welfare recipients (such as grandparents in receipt of non-contributory pensions and lone parents) could keep their entitlements.
Bringing more childminders out of the black market would enable them to avail of existing grants and funding for training and to network with other childminders. A childminder receiving support, training and networking opportunities costing €1,000 can provide up to six childcare places.
Currently, registered childminders are inspected for health and safety, but Childminders Ireland says introducing further rules could discourage and even close down some childminders.
It says there has been too much focus by the State on providing more places in group care, rather than on supporting childminders, which offer consistent bonding in a family setting. The Government must be brave and not just polish up current policy and provide the minimum with a short-term view to the next general election.
Who: Irish Small and Medium Enterprise (Isme)
What they want: Affordable childcare that enables mothers to choose to remain working, State investment in more childcare places, exemption from benefit-in-kind tax on employers' contributions
Small businesses are by their nature family- friendly, according to Isme, but with childcare now averaging €180 per week nationwide - three times the EU average and 38 per cent of the average take-home pay - for many mothers it makes better economic sense to stay at home than to pay exorbitant childcare prices. For small businesses who have invested in training employees, it's a major blow.
The lowest increase in female labour participation in the past five years has been in the 25-45 age group: among women aged 25-35, employment grew by 1 per cent, and by 3 per cent for those aged 35-45.
Isme wants to see employers allowed to provide tax-deductible subsidies to employees for the specific provision of receipted childcare facilities, without the employee having to pay benefit-in-kind.
The State should increase its level of funding and tax breaks towards the building and provision of the 15,000 new childcare places per year which will be needed, according to the OECD.
Who: Irish Business Employers Confederation (Ibec)
What they want: A State-funded national childcare service
International evidence shows that participation in the labour force enhances life opportunities for families, while early years education enhances children's educational achievement. Parents' preference is for centre-based care rather than child-minders, but half say it's unavailable and one-third say they can't afford it, according to Ibec.
A national childcare service, for which one Government department would be responsible, would offer a diverse selection of high quality care, says IBEC. Over the next decade, the service would provide 10,000 places per year for a total of 100,000 new places in state-of-the art facilities rivalling the best in Europe. Flexible and part-time childcare would be included.
Mandatory training in a State-developed curriculum would be required for childcare workers. All facilities and childminders would have to register and ultimately, would be licensed. Parents could be given vouchers worth €20 to €70 per week, depending on income, to help pay for second and subsequent children.
TeenTimes returns next week
