Out of school hours care

 A NewsPoll survey on out of school hours care was commissioned by NFAW, on behalf of a consortium including The WomenSpeak Network, Security for Women, Women's Information and Referral (Vic), Network of Community Activities (NSW), Queensland Children's Activities Network, and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission.

The report shows that a nation-wide lack of access to affordable school holiday programs means that 30% of school age children (5-15 yrs) whose parents work, spend the holidays alone.

Parental difficulty in finding or affording care before and after school hours during their absence at work means that 15% of the school age children are home alone during that time.

NFAW, together with the Australian Federation of University Women and the Victorian Women's Information and Referral has made a Submission about the inadequacy of current out of school hours care policies and programs to the Inquiry into pay equity and other causes of disadvantage for female work-force participation currently being conducted by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Work-Place Relations.

That Submission makes the following recommendations:

1. That the inadequacy of OSHC including services for young people up to school leaving age be recognized as a major disadvantage to women's workforce participation and career development
2. That the Commonwealth Ministerial arrangements' responsibility be reviewed with a view to ensuring a clearer focus on OSHC, and ensuring better coordinated planning between agencies
3. That the Commonwealth place the improvement of OSHC systems on the COAG agenda to ensure better Commonwealth-State coordination and cooperation in re standards and provision of OSHC
4. That the Commonwealth and States/Territories commit to expansion on a systemic basis of OSHC services, and provide adequate increased resources