Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said the government would be undertaking a pilot program to provide funding for families who cannot access regular childcare.
In a speech delivered to the Early Childhood Australia Forum last week, Mr Morrison said the government was taking an “incremental and modest approach” to funding nannies for families in rural areas or in need of special assistance.
“We don’t see this as a mainstream alternative, but we do see it as an area that can provide flexibility for families that can’t access those mainstream services for any number of reasons,” he said.
“It could be because of their remote location, it could be because the children have particular special needs, it could be because they work shift work or things of that nature.”
Mr Morrison told the forum that the department would not be rushing the funding program, instead ensuring that its implementation didn’t disrupt the workforce and force up childcare prices.
“There is a litany of fish hooks in this and we need to get that right,” he said.
"We do not want to see a wide scale shift of people working in the formal childcare sector today move over into this sector. That will only force up prices for centres today if they lose their workers off to be nannies.”
In a statement to SBS, Mr Morrison said the Productivity Commission’s recent report highlighted the flexibility that can be afforded by opening up the opportunities for nannies in the sector.
“There is still much to work through in terms of registration and accreditation issues,” he said.
The report called for the range of services approved for government assistance to include approved nannies.
In a statement to the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into Childcare and Early Childhood Learning, the Australian Nanny Association advocated for a regulated and funded nanny scheme.
“ANA would like to see models of nanny care where the marketplace is broad to enable coverage for families in rural, regional and city areas, and allow current and new early childhood services the ability to provide the nanny care,” it read.
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