The snub came last week in a consultation paper on Government plans to introduce payment for 'home childcarers' by the childcare tax credit element of Working Families Tax Credit from April 2003. But nannies, who already work with children in their parents' homes, will be excluded from the initiative unless they first become registered childminders. Even then, registered childminders will be given first priority to be registered as home childcarers, the consultation said.
In her foreword to the paper, Supporting the cost of home-based childcare, early years minister Catherine Ashton described the proposals for home carers as 'a key development in our National Childcare Strategy' and admitted that formal childcare provision is 'not always accessible or affordable' to many parents who work long hours, shifts or at weekends. She said home childcarers would also work with families with children who have disabilities as they 'are less likely to be able to access childcare because of a lack of disabled access and facilities, or perhaps because of a lack of suitably qualified staff'.
Baroness Ashton added, 'We need to support childcare services that not only better reflect working patterns and parents' family needs, but are delivered in such a way that people on lower incomes can afford them.'
Parents using home childcarers will be eligible for financial help through the childcare tax credit element of Working Families Tax Credit from next April, as will those using domiciliary careworkers and nurses from agencies registered by the National Care Standards Commission under regulations to be introduced by the Department of Health from 1 September.
Organisations representing nannies and agencies were angered by the tone of the consultation document. Tricia Pritch-ard, professional officer of the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses, who has long campaigned for a national register of nannies, said, 'The fact that the Government is not consulting with nannies or agencies speaks volumes. I expect it knows very well what response it would get.'
She added, 'The Government recognises the need for childcare in the child's own home, yet is hell-bent on refusing to recognise nannies. Why should nannies wish to qualify as a childminder when they've undertaken a two-year course and already hold a higher qualification than most childminders?'
Peter Cullimore, chair of the childcare section of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, which represents nanny agencies, said, 'The Government seems to have ignored that there are already more than 100,000 nannies providing the type of care it now considers should be covered by the WFTC. This is a complex procedure to solve a problem that doesn't exist. We think few childminders will want to register as home childcarers.'
But Gill Haynes, chief executive of the National Childminding Association, said the consultation was 'a positive step for meeting the growing demand from parents for high-quality childcare'.
The consultation is on the website www.dfes.gov.uk/consultationsand it ends on 31 August.
She added, 'The Government needs to build this scheme in a systematic and coherent way, so is building on the concept of regulated care. It is clear from the consultation that this will expand in the long term.'
