Childcare Policies and Programmes

Abstract

Childcare is an umbrella term that covers a whole spectrum of caretaking arrangements mothers (parents) make when they engage in paid work. Childcare ranges from a privatised, informal, unregulated in-home care by a relative, friend, childminder or a live-in nanny to a public, licensed, professional group care in a day-care centre, nursery school, kindergarten or ‘outside school hours’ centre. Many definitions of services which complement or supplement parental care equate childcare with services required by infants and pre-schoolers. However, the need for childcare does not end when a child begins school, at five years of age in the United Kingdom and six years in Canada and Australia.