At the moment, relatively few employers give their staff any form of help with childcare costs. Only large companies can consider setting up workplace nurseries that can offer tax-free childcare. Other employers wanting to help parents in other ways should be encouraged to do so if we are really to achieve the aim of affordable, accessible, high-quality childcare for all.
But an influx of au pairs from eastern Europe must not be seen as a solution to childcare problems, as may happen with the Government's extension of the scheme to six more countries (News, page 5). There are already too many abuses of the au pair system, which can work well when the spirit of a cultural experience in exchange for some light domestic help is adhered to. Too often, however, au pairs are being used as cheap, unsupervised childcarers for long days at the expense of both the young foreigners and the children they look after.
