Childcare Bill

Amendments Nos. 43, 44 and 45 are my amendments in this group. Amendment No. 43 ensures that there is adequate expertise in the local authority to make sound judgments about what is high-quality childcare. There has been much restructuring of local authority services recently, and there is a concern that some of the expertise currently developed in childcare may be lost in that process. As we have seen in the questions about looked-after children and residential childcare, it is very important that those making decisions have an understanding of the true cost of high-quality childcare and that they invest to save and look to the value of good-quality care. The other two amendments aim to gather information that would help us to see more clearly where good and not so good-quality childcare is provided. We need to know about variations in staff turnover and different settings and areas; about time set aside for INSET training; about levels of qualification and distribution of qualified workers between different settings and different areas; and about the number of children in early years child care by age and by their length of exposure to child care. We particularly need to monitor the number of infants under the age of 12 months spending long periods in group care. It may be that Ofsted is the best body to do that, but I look forward to the letter from the noble Baroness, Lady Crawley, on how frequently Ofsted gathers information. That is the purpose of these amendments. I look forward to the response of the noble Baroness.