Clause 8 - Powers of local authority in relation to the provision of childcare
Childcare Bill
11:30 am
Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Children, Young People and Families), Department for Education and Skills; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
Most hon. Members will recall that we had an extensive debate on clause 6 last week, and I hope that, as a result, our intentions are clear. I am not going to repeat all the points I made on Thursday. We want to ensure that the child care market—as I said, it is very different to that of education and other public services—meets the needs of working parents and those in education and training so that they have a choice about how to balance work and family life. The role of local authorities will be to facilitate that child care market so that it meets those needs. They will not be able to fulfil that duty without engaging the private and voluntary sectors. Clause 8 gives them the power to do that. It is our starting point. We must strike the right balance between, on the one hand, giving local authorities the powers and freedoms that they need to act in the best interest of their local area and, on the other hand, requiring them to support a diverse market that allows maximum choice and flexibility for parents.
Let me make a couple of points in response to Opposition Members. First, the process is not new. It has been going on for a number of years, as the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole reminded us. Local authorities and private and voluntary independent providers have already been working together, developing their relationships and providing the hundreds of thousands of extra places that we talked about last week. Secondly, the views of some Opposition Members in relation to local authorities have been illuminating. They clearly have a generally negative view of local authorities and think that other sectors need protecting from them. Despite protestations about a new kind of politics—we heard this as long ago as the last general election, in relation to the Conservatives’ attitude to local government—they clearly still do not trust local authorities.