Priorities for childcare
Affordable and flexible childcare is vital to help single parents deal with imminent welfare changes, Jennifer McCann tells agendaNi.
With major budget cuts on the horizon the Coalition Government is proposing to radically shake-up the welfare system, leaving many families worried about childcare. The Government wants to encourage the jobless to go back to work but Sinn Féin MLA Jennifer McCann argues that an appropriate childcare strategy needs to be put into place before this can happen.
In a no day named motion (i.e. yet to be debated be the Assembly), McCann called for the Executive to bring forward a fully resourced childcare strategy as soon as possible to ensure that adequate, quality, affordable and flexible childcare is available to people who need it.
“Given the way the welfare benefit system has changed, it will also highlight the need for local authorities to take more responsibility in providing childcare services as more single parents will be forced into work,” she comments.
The Executive has not published a childcare strategy to date. In 1999, the policy statement ‘Children First’ was published with the aim of ensuring high quality, affordable childcare for children up to the age of 14 in every local community.
It was a shared commitment between the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Department for Employment and Learning and the Department of Education. Since then the ministerial sub-committee on children and young people has identified childcare as a “priority issue” and agreed that a policy and economic appraisal should be carried out on a range of strategic options.
A spokesman for OFMDFM confirmed that a paper on the appraisal report has now been prepared for the Executive and it will be published as soon as it has been considered. The paper outlines the key findings and, when it is published, work on the development of a childcare strategy, including a public consultation, will begin.
According to the department’s spokesman, a timescale for the development of the strategy “cannot be confirmed until the Executive has agreed the way forward for the work, including the identification of a lead department”.
With the current financial situation and imminent welfare shake-up, McCann is hoping the motion will be debated “sooner rather than later” as she believes there is “not enough childcare provision” at present.
“Sinn Féin have been calling for a fully resourced childcare strategy for some time now and one which provides the flexibility for parents that work outside the hours of a normal working day,” she comments.
The West Belfast MLA is confident that when the motion does reach the Assembly it will receive cross-party support. She says it is an issue that affects all constituencies and highlights that “it’s not only working parents that will benefit” as people who are training or doing courses can also benefit as can vulnerable parents.
However, she realises that it will be a long and difficult process. “The hard work is not getting it through the Assembly, it’s having a champion to drive it afterwards,” states McCann.
She remarks: “I would hope that it is an issue that will be high on the Executive’s agenda and everyone will see the need for a childcare strategy which delivers affordable, quality and flexible services on the ground.”
