The National Audit Office has urged the government to speed up the regulation of childcare services because draft legislation drawn up two years ago has not yet been presented to Parliament.
The recommendation was made in a report on childcare arrangements for public sector employees drawn up by the NAO, which analysed five case studies.
National standards for child day care facilities were established in 2006 but the Department for Social Welfare Services does not have the required legal backing "to effectively enforce" them. Monitoring and registration of facilities are also on a voluntary basis.
A number of private and government childcare facilities have registered with the department over the years although the report points out that none were registered in Gozo.
Regulatory legislation that defines the role, functions and responsibilities of the Social Welfare Services Department as a national regulatory body for childcare services was drafted in 2008 and the NAO urged the authorities "to expedite" its introduction.
It analysed the childcare arrangements at the Employment and Training Corporation, Karen Grech and Mater Dei hospitals, Malta Information Technology Agency, the Water Services Corporation and the University.
The NAO pointed out that there was no common policy on childcare services offered to employees, with some agencies opting to have their in-house facilities, others subcontracting them to third parties and others still reimbursing employees for childcare expenses.
"In the absence of specific guidance from the management and personnel office at the Office of the Prime Minister, individual organisations across the public sector are, in practice, expected to develop their own policies and procedures related to the provision of childcare arrangements for their employees," the NAO said.
The government did have a manual on family-friendly measures but there was no reference in the latest version, dated October 2009, on any policy or guideline to be adopted by the public administration when making arrangements for childcare.
The NAO found that benefits for childcare were not addressed in the provisions for family-friendly measures included in standard collective agreements negotiated in 2009 by the Finance Ministry.
From the analysis undertaken, it transpired that the ETC, the WSC and the University had set up their in-house facilities to cater for employees while the hospitals leased property from third parties to organise their services there.
Initially, the plans for Mater Dei included an area for the building of a childcare centre but the space was subsequently used to build the Medical School. Today, the hospital rents a building in the vicinity at a cost of €18,000 a year to house its childcare services and the NAO noted that this was a constant headache for the health authorities because they did not have the necessary funds to buy a building and an in-house facility.
The IT agency had deemed its building unsuitable for the setting up of a childcare centre and, instead, opted to pay employees at a fixed rate for childcare services they bought in the private sector.
Given the expenses and time involved to have up-to-standard in-house facilities, the NAO called for a more careful assessment of this option. "It may be more feasible to first consider making arrangements for employees to use the services of the increasing number of childcare centres instead of embarking on projects to develop in-house facilities that require considerable investment and resources," the NAO recommended. It encouraged the government to continue providing incentives to the private sector and other interested parties to develop and operate childcare facilities in various localities, especially those with several public service organisations.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com