Childcare 2000 looks to local government
Last Friday it all started again. Primary schools closed their doors behind
858,823 children who got their two months holiday. For many of their
parents it's no holiday.
``I don't know what to do. They won't give me holidays in the job until
September. My sister can't take them every day ... they hate going there
anyway. There's a GAA summer play group for two weeks. We've our summer
project, but it's only three weeks. It'll cost me £110 at the minders for
the two of them. I can't afford that. Sure it's not worth going to the job
for that money. I'd be working for £8 a day. I'd be better off at home, but
I don't want to lose the job for next year. It's the fights that start on
the street, I just can't handle it.''
So it goes on. Both parents go to work, often to earn the mortgage payments
which can't be met without double income. And suffer the children. There's
no crèche, no summer project, no affordable or available or reliable
childminder, no care, no holiday. Just the street.
Some kids will make off to the Gaeltacht at a couple of hundred pounds a
week, gaining educational opportunities and widening horizons or a couple
of weeks camping in Europe. Others will make off to the streets, with
perhaps a neighbour, or sibling, to mind them. It's the problem of
childcare.
The problem of childcare starts with the fact that there is a lack of it.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg - an iceberg which plumbs to the
depths of inequality in Irish society. As Combat Poverty point out in their
excellent submission to the Partnership 2000 Expert Working Group on
Childcare, ``poverty is not only the result of unequal distribution of
resources, but also creates further inequalities in education, employment
and quality of life, thereby leading to the inter-generational cycle of
disadvantage, poverty and social exclusion''.
In between all the buzz words, the current euphemisms for inequality, there
lies the reality that childcare provision is the fulcrum at which the swing
into the self perpetuating cycle of disadvantage can be broken.
Poverty there is, and it is increasing especially amongst children. This is
scarcely surprising, because, as the ``Sharing in Progress: the National
Anti-Poverty Strategy'' document points out, the weekly cost of rearing one
child was £34.50 in 1996, at basic minimum living standard, whilst the
combined child income support (welfare plus child benefit) was £19.89 at
the time.
No wonder that the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) was enraged
when last December Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy failed in his budget
to make any provision for childcare. Noreen Byrne, chairperson of the NWCI,
which represents 300,000 women and 140 women's' groups, described it as an
outrage that the minister could not even cough up £5 million to fund the
development of a national childcare plan.
The only budget provision gave some help to employers to provide crèche
facilities for their hard pressed staff. With Government the largest
employer in the state, he might instead have thought to provide crèche
facilities for all its employees. He didn't.
Instead Health Board inspectors have been warning childcare providers that
their premises must meet the requirements of the 1996 Child Care
Regulations. The regulations are detailed and mean that most providers of
childcare, in the home, are faced with the bleak prospect of heavy capital
expenditure, and entry into the white economy. Without grants to help most
of these providers they are being forced out of business. Or it means
raising charges to the hard pressed users.
Childcare costs are between £40 and £71 per week for a single child, which
on average represents a fifth of average income, which is the third highest
of 15 EU states.
Since 1980 there have been 11 reports on the issue of childcare. Three of
them are presently before the Inter-departmental Committee, under the 26
county Minister of Justice, whose department is supposed to report its
findings and recommendations in August.
``We'll see,'' says Noreen. ``I'm a little cynical at this stage, but I'm
hopeful that this time around the budget will make provision for the child
benefit option.
The Childcare 2000 campaign want child benefit:
raised to £30 a week, (partly taxed)
£2 million capital grants to help upgrade premises to comply with the 1996
Regulations
an investment of £5 million to support quality childcare in disadvantaged
areas
further supports for training
help for child minders to register
for qualified people in suitable premises.
Measly demands, say some child minders. The £5 million won't go very far to
upgrade all the premises of the thousands of child care providers, who are
faced with building extensions to meet the 1996 regulations. ``We're
pragmatic about it,'' says Noreen. ``We've made recommendations which we
believe can actually be implemented.''
Higher child benefits might help those with children living in poverty, but
they won't help the children of the disadvantaged as they suffer in
education, schooling, qualifications, employment and quality of life.
Perhaps the most important of all the campaign's recommendations is the
establishment of a National Childcare Committee to oversee a national
strategy and the proposal for county childcare committees which would
develop county childcare plans, as a part of the County Development plan.
The Partnership 2000 Report and Childcare 2000 Campaign recommend that the
national and county committees would be funded to the tune of £3 million,
and report through Justice and the inter-departmental committee to the
cabinet. This proposal brings provision of child care right into the heart
of local Government.
The report recommends that each county committee would draw its membership
from local providers, private and community, NGO/Childcare sector,
statutory bodies, social partners and last, but by no means least, parents
themselves. The job of the county committee, which would be convened by the
local authority, is to develop, implement and monitor a 7-year plan for
child care. The committee would have independent status and would be
legally constituted to employ staff and channel finance. P2000 proposes
that £2 million budget be allocated for the first year of operation.
The heart of dealing with the child care issue of course lies in the
communities, which in so many cases have gathered funding from Government,
EU, Partnerships, and their own communities to meet the needs which the
community determines. This has been and undoubtedly will continue to be the
source of a solution to problem of child care. It is also the only level at
which child care can be dealt with as the key to redressing the balance of
inequality in society, and cutting off the inter-generational cycle of
poverty.
ERSI's `Living in Ireland' study showed (from 1994 figures), that 18% of
adults live below the poverty line of 50% of average income, and an
astounding 32% live below the 60% poverty line. Twenty years ago (in 1973)
the corresponding figures were 15% and 24%. Worse, where 16% of children
were below the 50% poverty line in 1973, twenty years later, 29% are. 40%
of children are below the 60% poverty line in 1994.
Family Friendly EU states
In France 90% of 3 year olds are enrolled in state-subsidised Ecoles
Maternelles. Their families can avail of 15 subsidies.
In Sweden municipal authorities provide day-care centres or family day-care
places for children from 1 to 6, and some care before and after school for
children aged 6 to 12 years.
In Finland local Government provide day care. All children under 7 have the
right to day-care places.
In Denmark public day-care facilities must be supplied by law for children.
Two thirds of child care institutions are run by local authorities, the
rest are privately owned.
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