Domna Michailidou, Greece's Minister of Social Cohesion and Family, announced on September 11 that the government would resume a funding programme to help municipalities and private operators create more daycare places for infants.
The Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family oversees Greece's welfare and family policy, including government efforts to reverse the country's falling birth rate, one of the lowest in the European Union.
Speaking in an interview with ERTnews, the news channel of Greece's public broadcaster ERT, Michailidou also addressed childcare vouchers and income criteria, the Neighbourhood Nannies scheme, the House III family support programme, and Greece's demographic challenge.
Michailidou said the new scheme would cover half the cost of creating places for babies at daycare centres. She said existing vouchers already secured spots for children over two and a half years old, but that finding places for younger infants remained difficult.
She said that whether the effort was good or bad, it was at least a coordinated attempt to address the demographic issue, which governments in middle income countries had previously ignored. Tackling it, she said, requires a combination of many different policies and reforms, so that each family can find the mix that suits it best.
On income criteria for daycare vouchers, Michailidou said families with three or more children face no income limit at all. She said income thresholds for families with up to two children had risen by 5,000 euros over the past two years, and that a family earning 37,000 euros should be considered middle income.
For parents who do not want to use the neighbourhood nanny option and prefer a more organised setting for their child, Michailidou said the ministry had set up a fund so that municipalities and private operators could receive half their financing from the state to open a daycare centre.
Daycare centres and the demographic issue
Michailidou said the ministry had spent a year in talks with daycare centre owners, reviewing the requirements for setting up centres and identifying which rules were outdated or unnecessary. She said having properly run daycare centres and adequate childcare was crucial to Greece's demographic issue.
She added that daycare centres are run by both municipalities and private operators, and that municipalities must be able to find suitable premises and take the first step in opening one.
Neighbourhood Nannies programme
Turning to the Neighbourhood Nannies scheme, Michailidou said 2,500 agreements had already been signed, involving 5,500 mothers and 3,500 nannies, giving families an alternative if they cannot find a nearby daycare centre or if their child is too young for one.
She described it as primarily a programme for mothers who want to return to the labour market. For a family with one child, she said, the income threshold is set at 20,000 euros, while families with three or more children face no income criteria at all.
Michailidou also said that of the 3,500 nannies currently registered with the programme, eight in ten are grandmothers.
She said carers looking after three children under the scheme can receive 1,500 euros.
