Child Care and OOSHC
WE NEED A PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION INQUIRY INTO CHILD CARE
It’s good news that the Commonwealth has created a new Ministry to encompass youth and early childhood: announcing it the Prime Minister said:
” The Hon Kate Ellis MP will be appointed Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth and will continue as Minister for Sport. Establishing a Ministry for Early Childhood Education and Childcare for the first time reflects the importance the Australian Government places on these policy challenges.”
It’s high time that attention is focussed not only on child care for children under school age, but also on the needs of school-aged children, as we argued in our Submission on Out of School Hours Care. click here to submission to HoR on OSHC. Few parents are entirely comfortable even with their young teens being continuously home alone in vacations or after school.
We know that achieving work-life balance is important for working parents. Click here to view Newspoll on OSHC.
We know that women who chose not return to work full time, or who choose lower paid jobs to ensure they can care for school age children, are often unable to make adequate provision for their retirement pensions Click here to Retirement Incomes Sub to Henry,
It’s good news that the Senate Standing Committee on Education Employment and Workplace Relations is investigating the provision of child care. View submissions to Senate, plus Henry submission on tax by clicking on the below links:
But we need more. We need a thorough-going investigation from an economic perspective of the actual costs and benefits of providing child care for pre-schoolers, and for school aged children before and after-school care and school vacation care. We need well researched proposals for Government on new and better ways of financing capital and recurrent costs. Parents need certainty that they can access affordable, good quality services, which are appropriately linked into school and other community services.
The kinds of services which are stimulating and engaging for children must be identified and funding guaranteed Click here to sub to Productivity Commission
The services needed to assist children and young people with special needs need to be identified.
Tell us about your experiences with getting suitable child care and OSHC , so we can tell the Prime Minister why a Productivity Commission inquiry is needed.