Childcare Bill

I thank the Minister for her response. I also thank all Members of the Committee who have taken part in the debate. Before I go to the meat of my response, I wish to say something about care and education. I do not mind using the word ““education”” in relation to very young children, because my understanding of education at that age is that it is about learning. Every single experience that a child has is a learning experience. They know that if they cry, somebody will pick them up. They know that if they pucker up their lips and suck, somebody will stick something in their mouth and usually warm milk will come out. They learn from every single experience. That is my understanding of the word ““education”” when used in the context of very young children. I believe that that is not an inappropriate understanding. I go back to Amendments Nos. 35 and 42. As regards Amendment No. 35, I was a little concerned when I heard the Minister mention standardised assessments. I find it difficult to understand how a standardised assessment will take account of local cost variations. I appreciate the value of establishing a standard to enable one area to be compared with another, but I would not want an area where general overall costs were high to be disadvantaged in any way by having to fill in a standardised assessment. However, I shall leave that point for the moment. The Minister did not feel drawn to my amendment. I agree that assessments should be done locally, as she said, and that they must be pulled together to inform policy. As I understand it, she was saying that the Secretary of State’s decision to intervene would be based on evidence, which it must be, but that the evidence would be on the basis of the joint area review sufficiency test rather than the assessment done locally by the local authority. I am quite satisfied by that, and I thank the Minister for it. On Amendment No. 42, we heard again those magic words, ““It will be in regulations and guidance””. So let us hope that what comes out of the work that the department is doing with real practitioners working on the ground in local authorities results in some good best practice models and some bright shiny toolkits. I am highly amused by this expression ““toolkits””: I always expect spanners and screwdrivers to come out of them, but I am a practical soul.