Which is more important: affordable childcare or decent pay for child carers?

[Youdoyoubabe]

It seems that we cannot have both.... without tax bills going up massively.

Would like to know how other countries e.g France,Germany, manage subsidised childcare. Is taxation much higher?

We can have both - at the moment we have neither.

We need state funded childcare.

We should have both. Childcare heavily subsidised, childcare workers paid well. It would surely be cost effective in the end, plus, guarantee good quality childcare staff to ensure all children have a good start before they begin school.

Why should my taxes fund childcare? If you want to work then you pay child care.

Fine, they can claim UC instead.

France, Germany don't have as strict ratios of children to carers. That's what pushes up costs here.

@crossstitchingnana working isn't a lifestyle choice

No we need adequately funded childcare not the funded childcare we have now which is 50% less than the government advisors suggested.

Because we have a huge problem with women leaving the workforce. It’s a massive skills drain that damages the country.

Women who leave their jobs during the pre-school years often never enter back into the workforce at the same level as they were at, they have lower pensions and are more likely to claim benefits, both of which costs the country in the long term.

Im using women deliberately and not parents as although some fathers are stepping up and taking on more childcare, it’s sadly still a small percentage - overwhelming mothers take the main hit.

I'm long past needing child care as my kids are older teenagers now. None of that would benefit me directly but I recognise it would benefit society and women.

I don't even know if where to begin with this. It's not about wanting to work, it's often about having to work. This is not just for financial stability now but also for the future. I work part time and to put my child in to three days nursery costs more than my mortgage! I take it that you maybe didn't need to use childcare. Times have very much changed and living off one wage is often just not possible due to costs in rising house prices and general cost of living. There is also a lot of studies that show how good it is for children t
o attend nursery in the development of social skills. Maybe you should have a look at some of this before trotting out the usual crap.

Wow

Decent pay for childcare providers is more important, but it needs to be affordable as well. While not everyone can afford childcare, currently many people can, and the providers they are using need to be paid properly otherwise the standard of car will not be good enough.

The same reason your taxes should fund schools, hospitals, UC and other public services that you might never use.

We can have both. Extra tax would be generated as a result of parents being less restricted in their employment.

childcare is a huge feminist issue. without access to high quality, affordable childcare lots of women are forced into part time working or not working at all. It's fine to say your taxes shouldn't have to pay for it but that argument is ridiculous. Should my taxes go towards treating illnesses caused by smoking or drinking? Tax is for the greater good, or it should be. We should be looking after everyone, regardless.
We can afford to, we just have a government who choose to be fucking cruel and inhumane instead.
Childcare should be better funded; perhaps companies could offer to pay as a benefit and that is then properly funded through the government? Perhaps we could see early years practitioners as the invaluable resource they are and fully invest in training and paying them. Crazy to me that we trust them with the most precious things in the world and then pay them so terribly.
We need a compassionate feminist party who recognises the inequalities poor childcare creates

Firstly I think we should be looking at how to enable people to care for their own children and still work. Flexible hours, support with retraining, re-entry opportunities, professional jobs available on a part time basis for both men and women.

And yes, childcare needs to be subsidised so we can have high quality childcare without costing the earth. Pretty much everyone needs it at some point - and even if they don’t, they need society to have kids who grow up into taxpayers.

From what I read childcare settings in those countries have a higher standard of qualification for a higher proportion of their childcare staff than we do, so you’re not comparing like with like. Additionally, reducing our current ratios would have an absolutely negligible impact on a parent’s bills as staff salaries are only a proportion of fees.

Society needs children. Because they will grow up and pay the tax which funds your pension. Because they will be the carers who look after you in your old age, the doctors who keep you alive, and everything else. You need other people to have children even if you don’t have any of your own. Which means that we as a society need to make it financially feasible for people to have children.

We don't have either at the moment though. Childcare prices aren't high because of nursery staff salary, majority are on minimum wage. Most of the money goes on cost of renting premises, gas and electricity, food etc and then the big bosses of chains earning loads.

Why should my taxes fund anything that I don’t personally need? Oh yes, because I’m not a dickhead

Funny old thing, the choices society makes.

If we banned alcohol and smoking, the money the nhs would save on treating avoidable diseases and eg drunken injuries would easily fund the budget problem with childcare.

The other countries with heavily subsidised childcare have state run childcare.

Government run and owned.

Childcare in the UK is privately run.

Childcare should be tax deductible imo