05/06/2007
Belgian Socialists propose child care in railway stations
The Belgian Parti Socialiste has made an innovative and ambitious proposal to create nurseries in and around railway stations in order to increase the number of pre-school child care places and make nurseries more accessible to parents who have to commute to work. The proposal is featured in their election programme - Belgian national elections are on June 10.
The Belgian Socialists point out that SNCB – the national railway operator – has a number of buildings that could be turned into nurseries. They propose that the nurseries be made available to users and employees of the Belgian railways. By placing nurseries in or around railway stations parents would not suffer the stress of getting stuck in traffic jams between dropping off their child(ren) and catching the train to work.
Christie Morreale – vice president of the Belgian Socialists – said that there were 8,000 places needed in the next three years before her child could be sure of getting a place in nursery. Watch the video
Improving child care has featured in the electoral programme of many of Europe’s socialist, social democratic and labour parties in recent months - in France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Austria. Now it is the turn of the Belgian Socialists to propose new child care policies – and they’ve come up with a really innovative idea!
