It seems we’ve reached a moment in which nothing can be taken for granted and everything is up for re-thinking. Pandemics, it turns out, have that effect. What better time to take a fresh look at the broken state of child care in Australia and look towards a better way?
I come at this from the perspective of in-home child care as the operator of one of Australia’s largest nanny agencies. We supply nannies to both private and government-supported clients for the specific purpose of providing structured in-home child care to those who either prefer that form of care or who, for various reasons, are unable to access other forms of child care.
Before I start, I should clarify a couple of common misconceptions about nannies.
First, it’s not only the rich and famous who use nannies. Some of our clients are shift workers who need care for their children outside normal business hours. Some are people with disabilities. Some are vulnerable parents – parents who are really at rock bottom due to, say, the chronic disease or illness as the result of childbirth.
Second, nannying is a profession. Nannies aren’t babysitters or au pairs whose job is to feed the kids or clean the house. Nannies are professional child carers. The Department of Education calls them ‘in home care educators’ which, while a mouthful, is a relatively accurate description of a nanny’s role. (We still call them nannies.)
The professionalism of our nannies was no better demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. For some unexplained reason, the federal government saw fit to disqualify those working in child care from the Jobkeeper allowance, instead providing us with an inadequate supplement.
This meant that many nannies (as other childcare workers) who chose to do casual work immediately took an income hit. Yet, without exception, all our nannies who work with vulnerable families decided they would continue to do that work, regardless of what it cost them. They just buckled down and did their work. I can’t tell you how touched and grateful we and the families they cared for were.
Another example of professionalism was the way in which all our nannies adapted to the challenges of working within a strict COVID-19 regime. This ranged from what we called ‘radical transparency’ to dealing creatively with the challenge of not being able to take their charges to the playground.
Which brings me to what I believe needs to happen to improve in-home child care, and by extension child care more broadly, in this country.
First and foremost, we need to take the sector more seriously. Let me cite two examples of where we fall short of this with in-home child care.
Tasmania is currently the only state in Australia (and a very rare instance in the world) in which government-accredited in-home childcare agencies are regulated by the state. In every other state, the state has no input as to how nannies are recruited, screened or treated.
The federal government has in-home childcare standards that were loosely adapted from the Tasmanian standards in 2007, but these are quite limited in scope. In addition, unlike childcare workers in long day care, there is currently no requirement that nannies hold any formal qualification unless they provide government-supported care. Since 2018, government approved nannies must either hold a Certificate III-level qualification or be working towards one.
We insist that all our nannies – whether working with private clients or not – demonstrate a minimum of three years’ experience, and we encourage all to become qualified. This is certainly not the case with all agencies, particularly many of those offering private (non-government approved) care.
Second, we need to emphasise quality and care over profit. Far too many nannies are working cash in hand or as independent contractors. Most of these nannies are working without the protections of workers compensation or professional indemnity, nor other entitlements like annual leave or superannuation guarantee contributions. Most are risking prosecution by the ATO, by either not declaring their income or not passing the ATO’s tests for independent contractors. Worst of all, employment conditions of this nature provide few protections to parents or, more importantly, their children.
Both cash-in-hand nannies and nannies operating as contractors are often cheaper than those employed through an accredited and responsible agency. This, I suspect, is why governments so often turn a blind eye to what are, essentially, rorts. But looking after our children shouldn’t be about trimming a few dollars off the cost of their care.
We could have cheaper car seats for our kids if we ignored safety regulations, but we don’t. So why on earth do we do the equivalent when it comes to in-home care?
Thankfully there are some signs of change on this issue. An imminent Senate inquiry into the gig economy and changes to payroll tax assessment for contractors in Victoria could both move things in the right direction. However, there is a long way to go.
Nannies have a role to play here. We encourage nannies to stand up for themselves and refuse cash-in-hand work or employment models that do them out of their legal entitlements. They need to think long term. After all, the longer a nanny (or anyone else) works ‘outside the system’, the more they jeopardise their future capacity to, say, apply for a home loan or accrue the superannuation they’ll need to retire comfortably.
Finally, there’s the matter of accessibility. There needs to be much more effective integration of in-home care and other forms of child care. Parents should have the ability to choose the form of child care that they want to use. Why shouldn’t parents be able to dip in and out of different types of child care as they need to? Just imagine. A little bit of family day care here, some long day care there and a nanny in other circumstances – with each of these providing safe, high level education and care from professional, trained carers. The possibilities are endless if governments are willing to be a bit innovative.
If and when we do go down this path, let’s make sure flexible child care doesn’t become something available only to those who can pay for it. It is increasingly clear that providing quality child care for every child has numerous long-term benefits to society.
Anyone who has worked in child care for any length of time knows that child care in Australia was broken before the arrival of COVID-19. The pandemic just brought its failings into sharp relief. It’s time to get serious about fixing it in all its forms, including in-home care.