Today I came across this article in The Australian by Patricia Karvelas .
At present the Australian government is proposing to introduce a very generous Paid Parental Leave scheme for new mothers paying them up to $75,000 pa. This is not what the government wanted to hear. It is also not what a lot of working mothers will want to hear either but you need to know the facts when making your work /life choices.
CHILDCARE for kids under one is of no benefit to the child and may even lead to behavioural issues, according to a British expert who has urged the Abbott government to overhaul its paid parental leave scheme.
Edward Melhuish of the University of Oxford, who has been brought to Australia by the nation’s largest childcare provider, Goodstart Early Learning, told federal MPs on Monday the $5.5 billion PPL scheme should not be set at full replacement pay but extended from six to 12 months at a lower rate.
The early child education expert told The Australian it was ludicrous to give new mothers six months’ pay – up to $75,000 – when they needed at least a year off with their child.
“I think it’s silly to give full pay for six months when you could give a lower fraction for a longer period up to, say, 12 months,” he said yesterday. “I would also think about the cost of that. The cost of providing full pay for six months must be enormous.
“Right now, you have some problems in your childcare profession in this country.
“If you are able to divert, say, $3bn of that $6bn to childcare I suspect you would be able to improve your childcare provision in this country quite dramatically.”
His research had shown childcare in the first year of life was not usually beneficial.
“There are some specific incidents of very disadvantaged children who are living in average families where childcare for the first year could be beneficial, but for the vast majority of cases now in the first two years of life it doesn’t make much difference,” he said.
An American study had found children subject to high levels of childcare in their first three years were likelier to develop anti-social behaviour, which started to dissipate between the ages of seven and 10.
“Providing high-quality childcare in the first year of life is expensive and it’s actually cheaper for the government to support maternity leave,” Professor Melhuish said. “In the first year of life there is something to be said for individual-level care but the benefits disappear after the first year, I think.”
teachbabytotalk 