Should grandparents be paid to care?
There are many issues behind the proposal for paying for informal care, but the childcare sector is united against it, Annette Rawstrone finds Grandparents should be paid to care for their grandchildren, according to the Conservative party. The proposals by Tory leader David Cameron to make relatives approved carers under the working families tax credit regulations (News, 2 November) have drawn a mixed response from the early years sector.
Grandparents should be paid to care for their grandchildren, according to the Conservative party. The proposals by Tory leader David Cameron to make relatives approved carers under the working families tax credit regulations (News, 2 November) have drawn a mixed response from the early years sector.
It could be a financial boon to the nearly 5 million grandparents who spend the equivalent of three days a week caring for grandchildren - it is reported that they could earn up to £12,000 a year. But there are concerns, too, that it would come at the expense of quality, regulated childcare.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'Grandparents are not necessarily the best placed to provide full-time, long-term, early years care and education. There is also potential for the system to be defrauded and for some parents to abuse the system, for example by keeping the money for themselves.
'There is also a huge danger this proposal will effectively create a market that is difficult to inspect and regulate and, therefore, be unable to ensure children are receiving quality childcare.'
Professionalism
National Childminding Association president Penelope Leach called the proposals 'misconstrued' and a 'retrograde step'. She said, 'The trend in childcare is towards professionalism and we are not going to get that by paying grandparents. It is a mistaken perception of childcare as just having children to look after, rather than being the start of a child's education.
'Research suggests that childcare by grandparents is not of the highest quality we can get. A lot of grandparents doing childcare seem to do so reluctantly. When we have looked into how much children are taken out and about to groups or swimming, grandparents score unexpectedly low compared with childminders and nannies.'
Dr Leach added that grandparents receiving public money for childcare should receive the same training as practitioners. But a spokesperson for the Grandparents Association said, 'Grandparents are, by definition, people who have experience of bringing up children. It is always good to have training available, but I do not think it is necessary that they undertake childcare training.' The Association is pioneering grandparent and toddler groups.
Grandparents Plus co-director Diana Whitworth questions introducing finance into what is essentially an emotional relationship. She said, 'This is a fundamental question, but some families can't afford the luxury of this discussion.
'Grandparents do provide the biggest service of childcare in this country and should have their contribution acknowledged.'
Most grandparents are not retired - half become grandparents before they reach 50 - and have active work and social lives of their own, begging the question: will they want the commitment of providing regular childcare or be financially unable to leave their career?
Much argument surrounds the effects of different forms of childcare on child development and behaviour. An American study, 'Maternal Time, Childcare and Cognitive Development: The case of single mothers', found that for every year of informal childcare by grandparents, siblings or non-relatives, children's intelligence scores declined by nearly 3 per cent. It was found that separation from the mother has a negative effect but can be partially offset by appropriate, rather than informal, daycare.
Emotional development
But Sir Richard Bowlby, in a recent Daily Telegraph article, raised concerns about placing young children in inadequate daycare. He said, '...it is far more difficult for a daycare nursery to provide an environment in which a child will develop normal emotions than it is for a mother, or in her absence, a father, grandparents or childminder.
'Rather than funding daycare nurseries through Sure Start, the Government should make it easier for parents to use their childcare allowances to pay a grandmother or other relative, or use it to "pay" to look after the child themselves.'
Peter Elfer, senior lecturer in early childhood studies at Roehampton University, said, 'All the evidence says that close, consistent and responsive care is better than someone who isn't consistent or responsive.
A good, well-supported keyworker or child- minder can do that just as well as perhaps a grandparent can.'
He added, 'A grandparent may have a closer relationship with the child but may feel put upon, and it is not as easy to say no if they are being paid.'
* See 'In my view', p30
More information
* 'Maternal Time, Childcare and Cognitive development: The case of single mothers', www.eswc2005.com
* 'Grandparents and Extended Families', jointly published by Grandparents Plus and Understanding Childhood, www.
understandingchildhood.net/leaflets.html
* The Daily Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk/news
