Grandparents a popular turning point for early childhood care

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) helped shine a light on how important a grandparent’s care is by putting out a media release, last month, which showed that “…grandparents provide child care for almost one-third of children ofworking parents.”

The media release, which was part of a wider report on childcare and education statistics during the period of June 2014, found that one third of children between the ages of 0 to 12 have received some type of informal care (i.e from brothers, sisters, grandparents; basically familial relations)  and that 22 per cent have received it from grandparents, the highest category of informal care.

On the matter of working families though (classified as two working parents), the findings revealed that 30 per cent of these children had received informal care from their grandparents, a figure close to that ofsingle parent families (31%).

However, in spite of this, the figures pale in comparison to children who have received formal childcare.

The same media release also mentioned that “…just under half [of children] (1.8 million) attended some form of child care.”

Furthermore, while the 2014 report noted how grandparents are the major source of informal care for working families, the overall figure of 22 per cent is actually a decrease from the June 2011 figure of 26 per cent.

However, these statistics have fluctuated quite rapidly, with the June 2008 report noting that “…grandparents were caring for 19% of the children aged 0-12 years.”

Furthermore, when you factor in the June 2005 report as well, there is also a slight decrease on the figures from 2011 to 2014.

While these are not significant jumps, the data shows that grandparents remain a popular category within early childhood care.

Callum Marshall