Looking after the little ones - more working parents need solutions

Child care centres have been around in Malta for a while, especially informal home based ones where people look after each other’s children while one parent is away at work or running errands. However, regulated centres are something relatively new in Malta, brought about in 2004 when women began lobbying for better child care facilities, and by 2006 some standards were released.

Rosette Thake is managing partner of Vista Coop, a cooperative that takes care of a number of child care facilities. Her concern lies in the fact that though standards have been set by the Department for Social Welfare Standards, these standards never became law and a number of facilities offering substandard care are not conforming to even the most basic standards.

“Unfortunately there are some centres that operate in conditions that are not conducive to child development, lacking some very basic facilities like running water. Other centres I’ve been to operate in a basement without any outdoor areas.

“In one particular centre, duties are only carried out at a specific time. For example, nappy changes are done at 11:30am just before the children are picked up by their parents. It is completely unacceptable that a child soiling his nappy early in the morning has to be in a dirty nappy for the whole morning.

“Because the standards are not law, there is no way that reporting these things will result in action.”

In order to become a registered child care facility, the centre must send in an application, following which an inspection will be conducted to ensure that standards are being adhered to. During the year, surprise inspections may be carried out and the licence needs to be renewed on an annual basis.

Government encourages centres to become registered by offering tax relief benefits to parents sending their children to registered centres, however these benefits do not affect families who are below the taxable income bracket, and these are the ones who need help most.

“For these people, there is no choice but to seek out the services of child care centres that are not registered and can therefore charge lower prices. I feel sorry for these people that have to leave their precious children in the hands of people who cannot provide the right care for them.

“The cost of compliance to these standards is high. Not only do we have to conduct health and safety audits on an annual basis that incur a small cost but the biggest expense lies in staff costs. The staff to child ratio is very high, with one staff member for every three children under the age of one, one staff member for every five children between the ages of one and two and one staff member to every six children over the age of two.

“At our centres we employ a total of 36 members of staff over the four centres we look after. The key to quality, especially in child care, lies in the staff we employ. We try to pay our staff members as well as we can, and they are paid one of the highest wages in the industry, even though we are aware this is not very much money. We would love to be able to pay our staff more but it is impossible to keep the staff ratios, while paying higher wages and still make ends meet.

“We operate as a cooperative, and though profit maximisation is not our top priority, we still need to conduct a viable business for us to survive in a market that is becoming more and more competitive.

“In so far as prices are concerned… if they are raised too high, then people stop using our services. Though this is the case for any product or service it is more so in child care. If a woman has to pay more than half of her income to send the child to day care so that she can go and work then it is simply not worth the effort and she will stay home and look after the children herself.”

Thake says that the solution here is for government to help subsidise child care services. In Malta there are three types of child care facilities. The first type is government funded and works as a social service. Places in these centres are means tested and, where parents are able, they pay a small fee. Even when paying top rates, these are much lower than those paid in the private sector.

The second type is in public-private partnership, where the government subsidises a portion of the fees. Vista Coop operate three centres in this market in Luqa, Paola and Gharghur. Parents still pay a fee, though this is about 25% less than the fees paid in the private sector.

The final type is completely private, where parents finance the entire fee. In this market, Vista Coop operate one facility in Santa Venera. The quality of service in the three markets is identical.

“Child care centres are gaining popularity in Malta, and this is so for a number of reasons. In the first instance people are putting off having children until later on in life. When this happens family members are also older and grandparents may not have the capability nor the energy to look after young toddlers.

“Another reason care centres are becoming more popular is that families are becoming smaller and smaller. A lot of parents only have the one child and sometimes these don’t even have cousins. When this happens, the child has very limited contact with other children so parents choose to send their children to child care centres to learn important social skills in coming into contact with children their own age.”

Thake got into the business of child care services quite by accident. After sending her three children to summer school in 2001, she was appalled at the services provided in that the children were not even safe from passing cars. As she worked for a company that dealt with project management and schools cooperatives she decided, together with a colleague, that they could do a much better job. Kidstart was born from that day as a summer school and as it turned out to be a success, they saw a niche in the market for two to three year olds who had no where to go in the winter time. They then developed the care centre to extend into the winter.

The centre is open from 7:15am until 5:00pm, though most children are picked up by 2:00pm, so that working parents can leave their children while having their minds at rest. Unlike schools they do not take holidays and are open throughout the year.

Following the success of Kidstart, Vista Coop won the tender for public private partnership centres which operate with subsidies from the government.