While debate rages about the high cost of childcare, the core issue of quality is ignored, writes Kate Holmquist
The focus of the childcare debate so far has been on how much it costs parents to get children safely out of the way so that they can go to work. The public appears to be of the view that the care on offer is adequate and that the real issue is how to pay for it. In reality, the quality of care and education is unregulated and patchy.
Registered childminders and creches are inspected, but only in terms of hygiene, safety and staff ratios. Many people involved in providing childcare are inadequately trained and the quality of their interactions with children goes unscrutinised.
"The emphasis in the debate on childcare is skewed," says Fergus Finlay, chief executive of Barnardos. "Children are seen as a burden at the heart of the debate, in an argument which is being conducted from the point of view of the needs of parents and employers. Almost never do we hear mention of the importance of the quality of childcare."
"The youngest and least experienced people are asked to work with babies and paid the minimum wage," says Patricia Murphy, co-author with Geraldine French of Once in a Lifetime, a guide for those working with children from birth to age three, published by Barnardos. Childcare workers should ultimately receive training and improved pay and conditions on a par with primary-school teachers, the authors assert.
"The most important consideration has to be finding the most appropriate forms of childcare, not what the Government thinks it can afford," believes Dr Penelope Leach, childcare guru and author of Your Baby and Child.
As the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)stated in 2003: "It is vital that childcare primarily addresses the need of the child, as opposed to merely focusing on the needs of parents and the labour market. We know that a quality pre-school experience is an important factor in the cognitive, social and emotional development of children, especially those from low-income families."
Child-centred childcare that enhances the quality of children's lives requires that State spending be increased from 0.2 per cent to 1.5 per cent of GDP and that it be targeted at children's services, says the new Irish Childcare Policy Network (ICPN) in its first pre-Budget proposal, which will be launched today. The ICPN wants to see paid parental leave extended to the first year of a child's life, as also recommended by the National Economic and Social Forum. But unlike many of the vested interests (Ibec/Ictu, for example, propose a voucher system), it does not see direct payments to parents as the solution. The ICPN believes that it is in children's interests for the State to subsidise all childcare services, including out-of-school services, for all children up to the age of 14.
Direct subsidy to childcare services - which would halve the cost to parents while also funding improved quality - has been proposed by the ICPN, whose members include virtually every childcare provider, childcare organisation and children's rights organisation in the State, as well as influential early- childhood specialists.
A substantial increase in direct spending on childcare and early- childhood education could open the Government to charges of favouring mothers who work outside the home. However, argues Geraldine French, a member of ICPN, "for too long Government inertia has been motivated by the fear of alienating women who choose to remain in the home full-time. But providing the highest-quality childcare is not a women's issue. It is a children's issue and it is about supporting parents in their role whether or not they work outside the home. The research has proven without doubt that high-quality early-childhood education stays with children through life, improving their well-being, earning power and relationships in adult life."
Every euro invested in early childcare and education is returned 17-fold in terms of government savings, according to research. For example, when US children who participated in the High/Scope early years education programme were monitored from birth to the age of 40, they were found to have higher earnings, happier relationships and greater well-being than children who did not.
The benefits extend to the family as a whole.
"I feel that there's got to be a choice for women," says Patricia Murphy. "Some women would choose to work outside the home even if the choice to remain in the home were there, and these women should not be made to feel guilty. Parents feeling positive about the quality of their children's non-parental care is essential to family well-being. When parents feel positive and confident about their children's carers, that feeling comes into the home and is a huge support in the family culture."
Despite what some may claim, there is no research to prove that after the first year, children are better off with a full-time parent in the home than in childcare.
"The research is neutral," says Dr Jean Whyte, senior research fellow at the Children's Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin. "Children's rights have to be central, and we sometimes forget that. Looking at the issue from the point of view of the rights of the baby can help us in choosing policy. With an estimated 100,000 children under three in some form of full- or part-time non-parental care, with 42 per cent of mothers of under-threes working outside the home and with 50 per cent of mothers with under-15s working outside the home, the issue of how non-parental care is influencing children's development should be paramount."
Poor early-childhood experiences in creches and with childminders have a negative effect on children, states Insights on Quality, a review of services in the State published by the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education last year. It is one of many reports over the past decade which have expressed concerns.
The State will lose its economic competitiveness unless the issue of childcare is raised to the level of importance it has in other EU states, argues Heino Schonfeld, director of the centre, which has, at the request of the Government, designed the quality framework that the State will use to establish standards. Schonfeld describes some current childcare options as "detrimental", yet most parents and the general public seem unaware of the risks in a climate that focuses on cost rather than quality.
"Investing in high-quality early- childhood education is not about getting women back to work," Schonfeld says. "It's about helping children to be full of well-being so that they will be healthy and good citizens."
It is no coincidence that the Republic has one of the lowest levels of spending on early education and childcare services in the EU, at 0.4 per cent of GDP, compared to, say, 2.4 per cent in Denmark The UK aims to increase spending to 2 per cent of GDP by 2020.
Many lone parents who wish to raise their children out of poverty are prevented from doing so by the lack of affordable childcare. When they are able to work outside the home, they often settle for lower-quality childcare, according to the National Women's Council report, An Accessible Model of Childcare.
"Government policy is trapping one-parent families in poverty by preventing them from being able to move out of social welfare and into suitable and sustainable employment," argues One Family, a group representing solo parents, in its call for joined-up policy on childcare. Children of lone parents are 3.5 times more likely to live in poverty because their parents are prevented from accessing educational and employment opportunities, thus ensuring their long-term dependence on welfare, according to One Family's policy manager, Candy Murphy. "The complexity of issues around Government policy to support children is being lost in the current, narrowed childcare debate," she says.
High-quality early-childhood experiences can be had in all care settings, according to research. "The challenge for Government is to recognise the importance of the early years of childhood and the value of quality care," says Geraldine French, "and ensure that all carers, whether they are parents, childminders or providers, are supported in ensuring children's well- being."