Regulating care services industry for professionalism, job creation 

There is nothing more comforting for workers than to know that their children and elderly relatives are being properly cared for.
In Europe, care, especially for young children and the elderly, is one of the fastest growing sectors.

The global body in a report on care at work, highlighted the benefits of investing in care services and policies to alleviate poverty, encourage gender equality and support care for children and the elderly.
The new report, titled, ‘Care at Work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work,’ also highlighted the need for balancing a job with care that is essential for societies and economies to thrive and of narrowing significant gaps in care services.
 
Maternity Protection and Work Family Specialist of the ILO’s Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI), Laura Addati, in the report, revealed that paid care work is an important source of employment, especially for women.
She said the care workforce represents more than eight per cent of total employment of 12 million workers. 
 
With its potential on job creation, she raised the need to strengthen social dialogue and consultation process to develop a better system and mechanism in the important agenda.

Taking a look at the sector in Nigeria, operators urged the Federal Government to beam its light on the care service, stating that legislation is required to ensure adherence to standards, as well as regulate the conduct of care providers.
 
The Chief Executive Officer, Arrowshot Care Solutions, Dapo Olugbodi, who noted that the care economy is growing as the demand for childcare and care for the elderly is increasing in all regions, said his organisation is prepared to work with the Nigerian government on providing adequate legislation for the care industry in Nigeria.
According to him, there are 15 fundamentals standard of care that should be adhered to by professionals in the care industry.
He urged operators in the industry to focus on strong adherence to ethical standards in the discharge of their duties. 
He said these owe mainly to the duties care industry deal with human lives and as a result, strong focus on professionalism should be the standard.

Care jobs are often low-paid, physically and emotionally demanding with high workloads carried out with insecure conditions, inadequate training and poor career prospects, and in some extreme cases in conditions of near slavery.
 
While care workers are often badly paid, care is expensive for those who have to pay for it out of their own pocket.