New Clause 11 - Requirement for providers of children to provide information
Childcare Bill
10:15 am
Maria Eagle (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Children and Families), Department for Education and Skills; Liverpool, Garston, Labour)
I was puzzling over the wording of the new clause when preparing for the debate. The hon. Lady uses the word “conditions”. Under the new clause, providers of early years child care would have to inform the parents of children in their care of the conditions under which the care was provided.
In the Bill, “conditions” has a particular meaning. It is used to describe the restrictions that can be placed upon carers in order for them to be registered. It may include requirements relating to the applicant, the premises or the care arrangements, including the hours of operation or the number and ages of the children cared for. It seems clear from what the hon. Lady said that that is not what she means. Introducing a different meaning to a word that already has a particular meaning would cause ambiguity, and I am sure that she does not seek that.
I agree with the hon. Lady that, when parents leave their children in the care of others, they will want to know that the children will be safe and well looked after and that certain standards will be met. Information about the conditions attached to the registration will enable parents to raise issues with the provider and even to make formal complaints to Ofsted should they see those conditions being breached or not being met.
The current regulations require Ofsted to issue a certificate of registration confirming that the provider has met the standards for registration. In addition to the name of the provider, the certificate has to contain the address at which the care is to be provided as well as any specific conditions—I intend the meaning in the Bill—that are applicable to the registration. Typically, those include the hours of opening and the number and age of children that can be cared for.
We will continue that requirement in the regulations to be made under the Bill. The new regulations to govern providers’ activities will also require that the certificate must be displayed for parents to see. That will go some way towards meeting the hon. Lady’s aims, although it will not deal with those who are not registered—who perhaps do not have to be registered. However, it will mean that that information will be displayed for parents to see. If it is not there, they will know that it is not a registered setting. In a sense, that meets the requirements that she seeks to make with her new clause. Despite having some sympathy with her reasoning and regarding the constituency case that she talked about, which has given rise to the new clause, the use of the word “conditions” makes the meaning so ambiguous that it would not be very sensible to accept the new clause. I hope that on the basis of that explanation the hon. Lady can see that we are going three quarters of the way to meeting the requirements that she seeks to place in the Bill and that she will therefore be happy not to press her new clause.