Clause 45 - Power to enable exemptions to be conferred
Childcare Bill
2:15 pm
Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Children, Young People and Families), Department for Education and Skills; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
This is an important clause. As we have stressed, the point of the early years foundation stage, and the new regulatory and inspection framework that supports it, is quality. The bringing together of the existing frameworks is crucial to deliver high-quality outcomes for children. As a result, all schools and registered providers, other than those exempted under the clause, will be required to deliver the early years foundation stage. For the first time, regardless of what setting they attend, that will ensure that all children receive high-quality, integrated education and care provision.
Initially for some individual providers this may be challenging. The exemptions power in subsection (1) will enable, on an exceptional basis, the Secretary of State to exempt providers from having to deliver all aspects of the foundation stage. Such exemptions would be made only in exceptional circumstances: for example, on a time-limited basis during which period we would expect local authorities to use their powers under clause 13 to support providers in improving the quality of their practice and to give them training so that they are able to deliver the foundation stage.
We do not want to use that power to exempt providers for a long period of time or indefinitely to exclude them from the general direction of travel, because it is all a matter of quality. However, there may be circumstances in which an individual provider could be released from all the requirements for a period under close observation and with support from the local authority to allow it to come up to the right standard.
Subsection (2) enables the Secretary of State to make regulations permitting providers to disapply some of the learning and development requirements for a particular child, which would depend on particular circumstances. It would have to be decided on a case-by-case basis, rather than a category one. The benchmark for us would be what was in the best interests of an individual child.
However, as we take forward the development of the early years foundation stage, we must ensure that we can provide for human rights implications and the rights of parents to ensure that—within appropriate boundaries—their children are cared for in accordance with their own philosophies and beliefs. Subsection (2) provides this flexibility to be able to take account of specific circumstances, philosophies or parental values.
We have to have this flexibility in the Bill to take account of some of those exceptional circumstances, but I reassure the hon. Lady that we regard any exemption as being exceptional and mostly for a time-limited period to enable people to reach the ability to deliver the early years foundation stage in full. For the reasons I have outlined, we need the power to have that flexibility in the Bill.