I BELIEVE it is time to review our thinking regarding paid child care for working parents in the crucial years of a child's development, namely from birth to around four or five years of age. It is a brave person, Pat Garnet ('More important things than free childcare', Letters, 3/9), who puts forward a different opinion to what has become the acceptable norm in an increasingly self-centred society.
The need for more affordable child care is bandied around as though it is one of life's essentials, but child care is a business and businesses must make profits to stay afloat. I imagine that in some cases corners are most probably cut, especially when staff leave, call in sick or take holiday leave. Would we want to know about neglect, lack of supervision or even abuse? I believe it could be happening without our knowledge.
