Will the government help pay for your nanny?

Social Services Minister Scott Morrison says his aim in redesigning the childcare system is to help make it easier for women to return to the workforce, and is open to broadening subsidised services to include nannies.

Releasing the Productivity Commission’s final report into Childcare and Early Childhood Learning, Mr Morrison told AM he could see the advantage in the key recommendation of a single, means-tested subsidy paid directly to the childcare service.

“It also has a benchmark price, so taxpayers under the proposal wouldn’t be subsidising out-of-core expenses for yoga classes or whatever else happens at the extreme of some of the service providers’ offerings,” he said.

“So it is a way, I think, of addressing the economic part of this policy.”

The commission concluded the current childcare system was “complex and costly”.

Its recommendations amount to a wholesale change in the way child care is funded and administered.

Taxpayers currently spend $5.7 billion a year helping parents cover the rising cost of child care through two separate payments.

The commission recommended the current system be dumped in favour of a single subsidy and said it should be available to nannies “to better meet the needs and budgets of families”.

“I think what that reflects is the commission saying families … are dealing with a different set of needs,” Mr Morrison said.

“And there needs to be a broader array of product offerings and service offerings, and the system from a government point of view, and the support we provide, needs to reflect that.”

The report also recommended winding back some of the requirements for childcare centre staff qualifications, introduced under the previous Labor government, which would help centres cut costs.

“That really is now a matter for the states,” Mr Morrison said.

“The previous government locked all that regulation up at the state level.”

Most parents would also have to prove they were working, studying or training for a minimum of 24 hours a week to qualify for subsidised care.

However, the commission said there was evidence children from very low income households benefited developmentally from child care, and recommended waiving that activity test for those families in a move that would cost around $400 million a year.

Morrison calls for cooperation from Opposition

“The commission’s recommendations are based on a relatively budget-neutral position, but to go well beyond what is there would obviously require offsets and savings to achieve that,” Mr Morrison said.

“And that’s why I reach out to the Opposition and say we should be working together on this package and I’m happy to do that, but it’s not just about what goes into it, it’s about how you pay for it.”

The report is set to form the basis for a new families package the Abbott Government has indicated will be the centrepiece of the next federal budget.

It was also driven by the Government’s desire to encourage women to do more paid work to boost productivity.

The Productivity Commission estimated that, with the recommended changes, workforce participation will increase “but it will be small”.

It said the number of mothers working would rise by 1.2 per cent or an additional 16,400 women, based on full-time hours.

The final report was handed to the Federal Government last October after a year-long inquiry.

This article originally appeared on the ABC and was republished here with full permission.