All families
Families are central in young children’s lives. A wide range of supports should be readily available to all families with young children, including paid parental leave, family-friendly work arrangements, and information and advice for parents and guardians on how they can best support their children.
Our vision is that public support should make it possible for children to be primarily cared for at home by a parent or guardian for the first year or more of their lives. The current 6 months’ maternity leave should be followed by at least 6 further months of paid parental leave, to ensure a minimum entitlement to 12 months at home. This parental leave needs to be paid if it is to be economically feasible for a parent to remain at home for this critical period.
Where parents work outside the home, they should have family-friendly work environments which support them to meet the needs of their young children.
Parents increasingly value clear and reliable information and advice on how best to support their young child’s development. Parenting supports should be universally available and free. They should include information and advice to help parents’ understanding of how children learn and develop, as well as advice on how to promote positive behaviour in children and information on children’s health, well-being and safety. Supports should take a variety of forms, including public information, group-based supports in the community (including parenting courses), supported parent-and-toddler groups, public health nurses, and home visiting supports.
Immediate actions for the Government:
- Carry out an awareness-raising campaign to inform parents of the benefits of quality early care and education for all children, including the value of parenting supports.
- Implement the requirements of the new EU directive on parental leave.
In planning for the future, we urge the Government to make commitments to:
- Provide parenting supports locally and free of charge for all parents and guardians of young children, as well as for others who provide informal care for young children, such as grandparents and other relatives.
- Expand the provision of the public health nurse service and home visiting programmes. It should be made possible for any family to receive quality support in the home in a child’s first years in relation to children’s health and development, relationships, early learning, safety, parenting styles, and the early identification of additional needs.
- Incrementally introduce payment for parental leave so that paid leave is available for the critical first 12 months for every child.
- Introduce legislation to provide for at least 2 weeks’ paid paternity leave for fathers.
- Strengthen work-life balance, for example through a right to flexible working arrangements for parents with young children.