Clause 12 - Duty to provide information, advice and assistance
Childcare Bill
4:30 pm
Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
Again, these are probing amendments. Amendment No. 108 reflects an earlier discussion, so I shall not go into great detail about it.
Clause 12 relates to the duty of the local authority to provide information, advice and assistance on types of child care provision locally. I can predict what the Minister will tell us from echoes of previous debates. It is important that rather than just list what is available in the area, such as what nursery providers there are and what their capacity is, there is some qualitative assessment. Affordability is also a key factor. Certain nurseries will find that they are less popular with certain providers if they are not as affordable, whatever that is defined as in certain areas.
It is also useful to have some cognisance of their sustainability—by which I mean, how long have the child care providers been in place? Have they just sprung up? If so, one would want to ask rather more penetrating questions about their long-term viability and the viability of their business plans. The last thing that parents want is to get their children settled with one child care provider only to find that that provider has gone out of business and they have to move their children, which is damaging for all involved.
We are just trying to include a marker in the Bill. It is not clear how the information will be provided, but we presume that that will be taken up in regulations, hopefully sooner rather than later. Again we hope that it will be as extensive as possible, particularly in the light of the most disadvantaged families, who need to have things teased out that much more thoroughly.