A report last week from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 'Around the Clock: Childcare Services at Atypical Times', looks at the problems of parents who need their children cared for outside of traditional Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 hours, and how better services could be developed for them. The researchers surveyed early years partnerships and hundreds of childcare providers - but guess who they didn't consider? Nannies, of course - the same blind spot that the Government suffers from. Whenever academics or politicians think about childcare, nannies become invisible. Nannies are already willing and able to provide an extended service, like those in our feature on page 6 who work evenings, overnights and weekends. They are a resource that the Government could easily tap into, if it really does want to make life more manageable for working parents, which it could do by subsidising nanny care, for a start. Nannying has changed, between living in and living out, to include very ordinary families and not just the rich - so why can't the experts who agonise over childcare service be just as flexible?
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