Childcare Bill

Perhaps before the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, replies, I might be allowed to put in my five pennies’ worth. One might accept much of what the noble Baroness said about the sustainability and sufficiency of childcare. However, the concern of many of us is that, as long as the quality is good enough, the same childcare should be available from one year to the next. It is quite possible to have, in year one, 300 places supplied by settings A, B and C, and, in year two, 300 places provided by settings D, E and F. As the Minister rightly said, it is not cost-effective to see a lot of businesses crumble and to open up new ones in their place. A lot of us are concerned about what can be done to ensure that settings that children are used to, as long as they are good quality, are sustainable. Constantly to change the people who care for children is bad for them. Has the Minister considered whether local authorities have enough powers to do that? We may well have a perfectly good setting in street A; and in street B the school—which has the power to do this, and does not have to consult anybody—can set up wrap-around care. It is human nature to run after the shiny and new. A number of parents running after the shiny and new offered by the school in street B could well leave the setting in street A with an uneconomic level of occupancy. Desirable though it may be to have extended schools, and for parents to be able to drop off the younger child and the older child on the same campus at the same time, I am concerned that local authorities do not—with the independence that schools have gained and will gain—have sufficient power to sustain good-quality settings that do a good job for parents and children.