Clause 2 - Meaning of “early childhood services” for purposes of section 3
Childcare Bill
5:00 pm
Maria Eagle (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Children and Families), Department for Education and Skills; Liverpool, Garston, Labour)
It is a great pleasure to get to my feet at last, not least because it gives my back a bit of a rest. The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham says that it is dark, which it is, but it is also early yet, so I do not feel I have done too badly to have waited this long.
The hon. Gentleman moved the lead amendment and spoke to the others in the group with great precision and admirable brevity. He said that they are probing amendments, but their purpose seems to be to expand the services listed in clause 2 to include all of the children’s services in the 2004 Act and to widen the remit of the director of children’s services to cover all the functions in part 1 of the Bill.
The amendments deals with the legal foundation for early childhood services. The duty on local authorities to improve the well-being of young children, set out in clause 1, is one of the key tenets of the Bill. Clauses 2 to 4 set out the broad legal framework of minimum requirements, within which local service providers have maximum autonomy to plan the delivery of services for young children in ways that best suit local circumstances. The new duties will operate with the arrangements for children’s trusts, and the director of children’s services and the lead member for children’s services already being established under 2004 Act.
The answer to the hon. Gentleman’s question about why there is a reference in the clause to social services rather than children’s services is that social services functions are set out in the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, and that the children’s services in the 2004 Act include only those services that relate to children. I do not think that the fact the clause refers to social services and not children’s services will cause any confusion or difficulty.