Stay updated with breaking news from Cap childcare. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
where the skies are clear and the winds are light, east anglia and the south east. some of the countryside is close to freezing tomorrow. it will feel cold but a lot of sunshine continues during the day. northern ireland and scotland, the rain moves through with strong winds, even severe gales in the western isles. some of the rain reaching cumbria and anglesey in the afternoon. most of england and wales will be dry and a touch milder here. the headlines. police say ten people have been killed and eight injured in an explosion at a petrol station in county donegal, in the republic of ireland. a massive fire has severely damaged the strategically important road and rail bridge connecting occupied crimea to russia. ukrainian officials say they ve found two mass burial sites in the recently liberated town of lyman one with around 200 graves. now on bbc news, talking business. hello, everybody. a very warm welcome to talking business weekly, with me, aaron heselhurst. let ....
Need to be competitive. it depends on which country you are. in the netherlands, workplace benefits are highly regulated. once a year for example, employers and employees via the unions, may negotiate a wage that reflects the living standards. education levels we desire in the sector. 0r work life balance, all those things. and ithis way, i believe, a sector can compete and protect itself against undesirous effects. if i look at the uk, where we are also present, we are more free to determine the wages of our staff. and we do, of course, change the wages as the local market requires these adaptations. but the risk is that the sector starts competing against itself. fixed staff in childcare is hugely important when it ....
Businesses? the netherlands based company partou has 900 centres, it employs 9,000 child carers who look after some 70,000 kids. jeanine lemmens, the big boss of partou. a real pleasure having you on the show. jeanine, can we start with this, because the european union wants to see more affordable childcare so, well, so more kids can go to care centres. the eu has asked countries to agree to more ambitious targets. do you think these are achievable? well, in order to achieve the eu targets, individual member nations need to address the infrastructure and the provision that already exists. and the difference are really huge at the moment. overall, the childcare sector in europe is in its infancy. there is a lack of consistency between member nations, and nations are all inventing the wheel. and lessons from more advanced markets are not necessarily learned. so a lot needs to change in ....
There s also the economic argument. we invest a lot in women s education and training, but we don t get the return for that investment, which we should be getting. for instance, in the european union, 60% of university graduates are women. but then you go and look for them as they grow older, and are of the age of having a family, and you don t find them on the radar of the labour market because there isn t affordable childcare for their children and therefore they have to stop working or work part time. so there s the economic argument and there s the moral argument. now, the targets which we have, the barcelona targets, were proposed in 2002, so that s 20 years. now we ve raised the targets up to 50% for childcare for children under three years, and then 96% for children from three years to before actual school age, obligatory school age, so those ....
We tell women, we want you in the labour market and we want you to have more children. but they end up in a sandwich taking care of children and elderly relatives. so improving care work conditions and making care attractive is something all member states must work on. because we really need affordable care. european commissioner helena dalli, thank you so much for your time, i really appreciate it. good luck with everything and i ll check in with you soon. thank you. so the european union wants a lot more childcare to be made available, but it s not something you can just turn on like a tap. in fact, it s one of the most regulated businesses you can run. so what are the challenges for those who do run childcare ....