A mother has spoken out about a lack of affordable child care, saying that Government regulations make life hard for parents on a limited budget.

Tamara De Silva, 39, says rules put in place in 1998 stating that child care providers can only have a maximum of three children in their care have worsened a long-standing problem.

Her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Kelsey De Silva was looked after by care-giver Jacqueline Cann in her own home until she started at Tree Tops pre school last week.

Hitting out at the rules she said: ?Not only do parents have to hunt for ever-decreasing day care, but the providers have to charge more so they can live and pay bills too. On average, day care used to cost $150 per week with approximately six children in care. Reduce the children to three and the provider has to charge $300 per child per week. No average-waged person can afford this, which means longer work hours and more time with our children in someone else?s care.?

Ms De Silva, works as general manager at Port Royal gas station and returned to work when her daughter was three months old. She said that care providers having to get rid of children to reduce numbers could cause insecurity at a formative stage in a child?s life and that desperate parents might end up leaving their children in an unsatisfactory environment. Questioning why the maximum number is set at three, she said: ?The ages of the children and the mix of ages is surely more important than an arbitrary number.?

She added: ?I understand the law was passed with the interest of the children?s welfare at heart, but I do believe that this was not thought through. If it had been, Government-run nurseries would have been run in each parish to compensate for the children that would have to find new care plus the children that are in need of care now. Instead, there are no answers to this situation in sight. Every year when nurseries are up for registration, the threat of heavy fines and possible imprisonment cause more and more nurseries to close their doors, which makes finding someone to watch your child that much harder.?

Ms Cann, 63, currently looks after seven children ranging in age from ten months to three years at the home centre she runs in Sandys. A care giver for ten years, she has two helpers, and has on occasions in the past looked after up to nine children. She said that the first she heard about the three-child rule was when she got a letter about it last year.

?I?m concerned about the kids,? she said. ?Government has put all these rules in place and they have done nothing to ease the situation. There are so many kids out there ? I get calls every day. I have had to charge parents more but it?s impossible for us to go up any more.

?We?ve just got another letter telling us if we have more than three children we could be fined up to $1,000 but I?m not the least bit concerned right now. All that matters to me are the kids that I have in my care. I believe Government should come and assess what people have to offer and look at people?s homes and see if we are capable of caring for more than three kids on a case by case basis.?

Estlyn Harvey, Chief Environmental Health Officer at the Department of Health, said that until the rule change, child care providers could have up to four children.

She said the change was made for the protection of children and that those who breach the regulations could face a $1,000 fine. ?We are out checking child care providers,? she said.

However, she added that there is discretion in the policy, and punishments are not being enforced at present. ?We are not going to push for prosecution unless we are really driven to do it,? she said.

?We are here to protect children and if we find children in an undesirable environment and the child care provider refuses to co-operate, then we would prosecute.?

Mrs. Harvey met with the Child Care Providers Association last week, as they are concerned about the issue. She declined to comment on the outcome.