The proposal, floated last week by the Department for Work and Pensions (DfWP), has been attributed to Alastair Darling, work and pensions secretary. However, a DfWP spokeswoman has sought to play down the issue, describing newspaper coverage as 'premature and speculative'.
She said the DfWP intended to evaluate a scheme being run by Nottinghamshire County Council and added, 'Our interest in it is in transitional short-term help to get people off benefits and into work.'
Nottinghamshire has run the Child Care Voucher Scheme for about ten years. More than 1,000 families have accessed the scheme, which operates in certain disadvantaged areas of the county including rural areas and former coalfields, giving them up to 25 per child per week towards their childcare costs.
Parents have to give the name and address of the childcarer and the money is then paid direct to the carer. The scheme is flexible and can be used all year round or in school holidays only. It covers registered daycare such as a nursery, childminder or out-of-school club, or close relatives including grandparents, uncles, aunts, and brothers and sisters over the age of 18. At present between 70 to 80 per cent of the voucher recipients are using family members as carers.
Diane Tinklin, the scheme's manager, said, 'Here there is not enough registered childcare to go around - hence the need for grandparents as childcarers. It is as much a regeneration project as it is a childcare project because the money is spent in the local community.'
Gill Haynes, chief executive of the National Childminding Association, pointed out that many of its members are grandparents, and said anyone looking after their grandchildren ought to consider becoming a childminder as they would benefit from 'being registered, insured and well-supported'.
But she warned the Government against being tempted to regard grandparents and other unregistered carers as the answer to the shortage of childcarers. She said, 'We need to invest as a country in sufficient trained and supported childcarers. This is giving a wrong message at a time when we are trying to improve the status of the childcare profession.'
Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said the DfWP was giving a 'mixed message' about the national standards for daycare in England, which was the remit of the neighbouring Department for Education and Skills. She said, 'The Government has to make a decision about registered childcare and how it is to be funded. This could lead to a third layer of provision, with schools and the maintained sector one layer, the private and voluntary sectors a second layer, and grandparents as a third.'
But a DfES spokesman sought to allay fears. He said, 'We recognise that local schemes to support relative-based childcare may address issues and needs in their area. We are interested in their impact. Our main focus, however, is developing the formal childcare market through the National Childcare Strategy.'
