Childcare Bill

: I support the amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr. Goodman). As hon. Members have already said, the market is mixed. That is one of the values of the market because it ensures that the provision of child care is diverse. An especially diverse group of people lives in my constituency, so the more diverse our provision, the better the choice for my local parents. It is incumbent on the Government to ensure that the Bill facilitates and helps to develop that mixed market, rather than stifles it. It is thus especially important that we have a level playing field for both private child care providers—there are many excellent ones in my constituency—and provision provided by a local authority. We have heard that for every five child care places that come into being, three are lost, which suggests that there is a huge amount of churn in the market. The Bill places a duty on authorities to assess the local provision of child care, but the churn will make that difficult. It is in everyone’s interests to ensure that decisions taken by not only local authorities, but private child care providers, are informed, fair and sustainable so that local authorities do not constantly have to try to assess a situation that is evolving so rapidly that they cannot tell whether the local need for child care provision is being acceptably met. When we discuss the mixed market, we often forget about the individuals whom we need the market to serve: children. Nurseries may shut down in response to a changing market. However, if the closure is unsustainable, children often find changing their nursery difficult to take. Parents can find it stressful if they suddenly have to find a new child care provider because their existing one was forced out of the market. The more that we can avoid that situation happening unnecessarily, the better. I especially support amendments Nos. 5 and 35, which would ensure that local authorities would assess parents with disabilities themselves. As my constituency is a London seat, we have perhaps more than our fair share of Victorian buildings, which are not the most accessible in the world. We also have problems with public transport because although the buses are accessible, our local underground is not. It is important that the Bill urges local authorities to consider the accessibility needs and disabilities of parents when determining child care provision so that some people are not disfranchised from a measure that is meant to help absolutely everyone.