England

One Mother in Three is Unhappy With Child Care
By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent

One in three mothers is unhappy with the care her child receives in a nursery, according to a report today which rekindles the debate about day care.

Nurseries offer a lifeline for working mothers, although nearly a quarter of those surveyed was dissatisfied.

For millions of women, mortgages could not be paid or jobs maintained without nurseries, which - with their long opening hours and permanent staff - are the apparent solution to some of the difficulties of working motherhood.

Only 16 per cent of those surveyed said their life "could function" without using paid-for child care.

But 34 per cent of mothers have qualms about the quality of care their children are receiving.
Nearly a quarter said the nursery had failed to stimulate their child, and 22 per cent said they had raised "poor safety issues" with nursery staff.

There are 100,000 under-threes at full-time nurseries in Britain.

Prof Kevin Browne, an expert on child care and protection at the centre for forensic and family psychology at Birmingham University, said: "There are horror stories attached to some nurseries and they raise the concerns of mothers.

"Parents need to check Ofsted reports. The trouble is that when you get all the ticks in the box for any nursery, it will cost you an arm and a leg. And some women are beginning to take risks, and have informal child care, and that is when the child is more likely to suffer."

Today's survey of 2,000 mothers, whose average age was 32, was commissioned by the Discovery Home & Health channel for a programme about nannies. It found that a third of mothers were unhappy with the care their child received.

Unsurprisingly, seven out of 10 working mothers said their child was happier with them than at nursery, but 69 per cent also thought too many children were now in full-time child care.

Mothers had a host of complaints about their child's nursery - 56 per cent thought the nursery had let their child sleep too long, 34 per cent thought the treatment their child received was generally poor, and a third said the nursery staff lacked common sense or showed them little respect.

However, complaints were not restricted to nurseries.

A quarter of mothers who used childminders thought their child had received poor care and 16 per cent had changed their childminder, said the report.

Only five per cent of mothers said they could afford a nanny. The National Day Nurseries Association said the research was "biased and irresponsible".

Purnima Tanuku, the chief executive of the association, said Ofsted figures showed that 93 per cent of nurseries were working at or beyond the stringent requirements they set.

"If the regulatory body was to turn up and discover some of the scenarios this research paints as a common picture, immediate action would be taken," she said.

"This survey insults the hard work of nurseries and the choices parents have made. Any parent who is unhappy with the care their child receives can make a direct complaint to Ofsted, which will trigger an inspection."

Comment: Part of the problem with childcare is a division between what is possible and what is expected. A low paying job is not going to encourage "over and beyond" the call of duty. The other problem is the moral issue that concerns children. Childcare work is not putting nuts and bolts on inanimate objects. It's a job that "cares" for the next generation. In addition, the so called "brains" of early childhood all reside on University campuses far far from the early childhood classroom. There are a lot of people willing and able to pontificate but not participate. That's why I draw a distinction between what is possible and what is expected.