Childcare policy 'confusing'

The State's failure to coherently govern the childcare area and create sufficient places has led to unaffordable childcare costs for many parents, according to a joint investigation by employers' group Ibec and trade union body Ictu.

It says that the development of state-of-the-art childcare that enhances children's educational opportunities is being hampered by "confusing and sometimes inappropriate" governance in which a range of government departments operate various initiatives with little apparent interaction.

Ibec and Ictu want the State to create 100,000 high quality childcare places over the next decade.

A comprehensive childcare service led by one government department should be established and regarded as "essential infrastructure", they recommend in their 100-page critique Quality Childcare from a Social Partnership Perspective.

With more than half of mothers of children aged five and younger working outside the home, there is an urgent need for a diverse and flexible range of care for children aged 12 and under, including school-age care, they say.

But merely creating more places will be insufficient unless standards are raised, Ibec and Ictu agree.

Appropriately high standards of training and an approved curriculum for all courses must be made mandatory within five years, the report recommends.

Ibec and Ictu want to see a national registration programme developed by 2010, so that all forms of childcare can be monitored by an official, mandatory system of registration and, eventually, licensing.

They want planning regulations requiring developers to build one childcare facility for every 75 new homes to become mandatory and enforceable.