The Abbott Government yesterday announced a 2 year pilot program to subsidise nannies. Horaay! How long have we, as working parents, argued that in-home care should be subsidised? That nannies should attract a rebate of the nature provided for families lucky enough to be able to access centre based care?
A long time.
However, don’t get too excited just yet – there are a few restrictions:
- The trial will only cover 10,000 children
- The focus appears to be firmly on rural and remote areas, families who are shift workers or otherwise have difficulty accessing centre based child care
- To participate, your combined income must be less than $250,000 per annum
- Only nannies employed through government approved services will attract the subsidy.
Despite these restrictions, it is a promising sign for the thousands of families who use in-home care either by choice, or by circumstance.
Some families prefer to have their children cared for in their own home, a choice which often makes very good financial sense when there are two or more children being cared for.
Then there are families who, despite putting their children on child care centre waiting lists from the day they were conceived, simply can’t secure these hotly contested positions. With waiting lists of dozens of local families, getting a position in a creche can be akin to finding a golden ticket.
Other parents, while not working shift work, work hours in excess of the operating hours offered by centre based care, or need to travel for work. Many parents know well the stress of the dash from work, across town to ensure they get to the centre before closing time to avoid incurring substantial fines for being late.
In addition, what of the working parents with school aged children? While before and after school care programs are available, similar to creche based care, the hours of operation are limited and places can be difficult to secure.
This is not a debate about wealth or privilege. This is a debate about choice. For too long, the restrictions of the current child care rebate/ subsidy focus on centre based care has put enormous pressure on many families trying to manage their work/ life responsibilities.
Abbott will use the trial to see whether it’s viable to offer subsidies to everyone using in-home care. Let’s hope common sense prevails and all families have the opportunity to choose the subsidised care which works best for them.