Child day care allowance will only be available to youngsters aged under four as Government encourages parents to enrol their older children in public preschools. Until now, parents have been able to claim the benefit for children aged five as long as they remain in day care — giving them an incentive not to put their children into preschool environments.

Social Rehabilitation Minister Neletha Butterfield attempted to put a stop to that yesterday by introducing the Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act at the House of Assembly.

The legislation sparked a debate over the amount of preschool spaces available across the Island, with Government and Opposition MPs stressing the need to get children into the education system as quickly as possible.

Explaining the reasoning for the amendment, Ms Butterfield told the House: "Currently the Act provides that an award may only be granted in respect of a child if the child possesses Bermudian status and is either under five years of age or is five years of age and has not yet commenced primary school.

"The wording can be interpreted to imply that the Child Day Care Allowance would be paid for a child over the age of five and still in a day care environment. "This can then lead to the interpretation that a child is able to remain in this setting until it reaches the age to attend a primary school. This was not the intent of the Act.

"The Child Day Care Allowance programme was intended to benefit children in day care environments, ie private home day care or day care centres, not preschool environments and certainly not to the age beginning compulsory education.

"The Department of Financial Assistance encourages parents of children who are four years old and over to enrol those children in a public preschool."

Ms Butterfield said that, since Child Day Care was introduced in November last year, it has helped a total of 750 children and that as of November 13 this year 221 boys and 217 girls were receiving allowance awards.

She said a survey this summer showed 80 percent of recipients reported a decreased level of stress and improved quality of life thanks to the programme, with 65 percent of day care providers saying it has a positive effect on the community.

United Bermuda Party MP Charlie Swan kicked off the Opposition's contribution to the debate by questioning how many children would be affected by the amendment.

Mr. Swan said single moms and dads are struggling in the economic climate and that, while the UBP supports the concept of day care, he urged the Progressive Labour Party not to "over-promise and under-deliver".

PLP Whip Lovitta Foggo said it is important to get children into education at an early age.

"It's prudent to ensure those up to the age of four have the opportunity to be educated and at the age of four they are allowed to enter into our public schools," said the former teacher.

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons then proposed an amendment to the Act on behalf of the UBP.

The amendment suggested parents taking advantage of the benefit have to enroling on a parent education course and have their children developmentally screened and tested by the Child Development Programme.

Dr. Gibbons also pointed to the importance of early education, saying: "What we really need is an investment in preschool to get the young children ready for primary school."

Former PLP Premier Dame Jennifer Smith criticised the UBP's proposed amendment, saying that the bill is about child safety and child care, adding: "I don't think that we should make the child suffer because the parent is not prepared to take the course."

Deputy UBP leader Trevor Moniz complained about the decrease in the number of preschool spaces between 1992 and 2008. "We are giving out vouchers to put people in private preschool because there aren't enough spaces in Government preschools," said Mr. Moniz.

Former Education Minister Randy Horton, another former teacher, spoke of the importance of education in children's formative years. "It heartens me that we are taking yet another step to improve the opportunity for our young children," said Mr. Horton.

Veteran UBP MP John Barritt then offered more explanation about the UBP's proposal of committing parents to education courses.

"Child care, whatever it is, it never ought to be about: 'we are housing infants during the working day so mothers and fathers can work.'

"Why not ask for that opportunity that we ask for a little something in return?"

Opposition Whip Cole Simons repeated the UBP's long-standing complaint that day care allowance is available only to Bermudians. He pointed out that expats pay taxes too, and that when Bermudians go overseas they are able to take advantage of initiatives in their adopted homelands.

Mr. Simons said: "We as a government must protect the rights of all children who are legal in this country. We need to have more public preschools because the numbers have expanded dramatically. We need to assure the incentives in place to get our educators into the public preschool arena. Preschool is the foundation of ones educational career. I would like to have three or four more Government preschools."

Education Minister El James said: "We know that there are people in our society who are not able to provide day care for their young people and if I am correct, there are 750 young children who have been afforded this opportunity."

"In our day care, we have individuals there who have to meet a certain qualification. The different between day care and preschool is day care is all year. Preschool is similar to public school."

Shawn Crockwell said: "Day care is essential for those who have children and need to work. It's a stressful situation to find a place where young children can go while you go to work. We don't have much difficulty with the amendment. I think it's equally important to equate the fact that the opposition had put forward a very good amendment. We have an amendment which is good and is going to ensure that more Bermudian children have access to quality day care."

Dale Butler said: "I can only suggest that they [the UBP] put it in their platform. I have not heard any commitment from the UBP of standing on their foot and saying we will put it in their platform. Good point that we need two or three more preschools. Government will continue to look. Thankful, grateful, helpful, these are the comments that the Minister of Culture received. The people that we provided this for are saying thank you. Don't you want to hear that as an opposition?"

Darius Tucker said: "I am certainly grateful that there are parents in this country that now have the ability to get this allowance. "We have to make sure that they are worthy of the help and that they understand the processes that go along with it. The processes are put in place to ensure that these people are going to be worthy on the necessary funds they are going to receive."

Donte Hunt questioned where education came into place.

"First and foremost, in my mind, there's some discrepancies between day care and preschool. For myself, in terms of preschool, there a structured educational component. If it's the same as preschool in terms of the educational component then say so. If not, what we have is a bunch of beautiful young children going into a day care from whatever age to four or close to five before they're reaching up until they're ready to start public school or private school and they're not quite equipped in my mind."

Derrick Burgess spoke of misusing the initiative.

"This lady criticised this Government because people can take three and four trips a year. If any system that's put in place, you would have people that will try to fleece the system. They call ithuman nature for some people. That's why there's laws in place for people who misbehave."

Kim Swan said: "The truth be told that if money could solve problems then we wouldn't have any and our children wouldn't have the challenges. Could we have taken $25 million and put it into this program and would it have solved the problem? Money is not going to solve the problems that come to us."

Paula Cox said: "Family is the cornerstone. If there was ever a time when we needed to focus on family, it's now. As I canvassed I met two ladies, one black one white. One was divorced and was a single parent. Both struggled to make ends meet. You know when you talk about policies and platforms, they don't believe until they see the beef."

Neletha Butterfield spoke on child development and said: "Child development doesn't fall under me. It's very important that we do these kind of things. We are also in meetings right now with the child and development. I have had three or four other ministries but this foes to the pulse of some problems."