Two of the Cabinet's key advisory bodies have come out against the Cabinet's plan to make daycare and after school care virtually free for everyone. The plan will actually increase inequality of opportunity, and does little to ensure that more adults are able to enter the workforce, said the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) and the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB). A system that mainly includes support for lower income households and also for those who are unemployed would be more helpful, they said.
Childcare organizations have reacted in different ways to the Cabinet’s decision to postpone its plan by two years to cover almost the entire costs of childcare for the children of working parents. Loes Ypma, the chair of the Association of Social Childcare (BMK), called it "very unwise." Emmeline Bijlsma, the director of the childcare sector organization (BK), on the other hand, is "very pleased that the government recognizes the significant staff shortage in child care."
June 10, 2021
All parents should be able to afford to put their children to formal childcare, even if they are not working, government advisory body SER said on Thursday.
SER, which is made up of lay, union and employer organisations, has drawn up suggestions for reforming the childcare sector in the Netherlands which it hopes will become part of the next government’s strategy.
Currently childcare is too expensive for many parents but it can play an important part of child development, SER said. In particular, the children of unemployed parents run a greater risk of starting school with a disadvantage and access to childcare would help ensure equality of opportunity.