My Lords, I thank the Minster for setting out the Bill and for meeting with Peers yesterday. I have the greatest respect for the Minister, and hope that he will be able to
convince the Government that there are a number of issues, already eloquently stated by other Members of this House, which need to be resolved before the intentions of the Bill can be achieved—intentions which I support. However, any Bill, especially a Bill with “child” in the title, must reflect, as set out by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, that the welfare of the child is paramount. Frankly, I see little mention—in fact, no mention—of the child in this Bill at all; I see it only in the Minister’s letter.
I return to the Bill as it stands. I want to reinforce two initial general points. First, if the Government want to improve the system of childcare, they need to look at the whole system of childcare, not just the employment of parents. Much work is needed to be done on the Bill, and soon. My second general point is about the publishing of information by local authorities. Before information can be published, it must be reliable, clear and accurate. At the moment, childcare systems are not clear and parents can be confused. I shall say more about this shortly.
A great deal of work has been done on analysing childcare needs, by government departments, the voluntary sector, Ofsted and recently by a much quoted Select Committee on Affordable Childcare—ably and, if I may say so, superbly chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland—of which I was a member. The committee reported to your Lordships’ House in February but, somewhat surprisingly, we have not yet had a government response. When can we expect one? The Ofsted early years annual report will be published in July, and we need to look at that carefully as well. There is evidence both of good practice and of concerns. How will the Government take these concerns and good practice into account?
I want to reflect on some of the issues mentioned by those who were witnesses during the Select Committee sessions—there were 80 witnesses. All those concerned about childcare agree that childcare has two functions: one is to improve the life chances of children, particularly those in deprived areas, and the other is to help parents into employment. We cannot simply get more parents into work, and children into an extension of hours, without looking into the quality of childcare. The Select Committee learnt from more than one witness that deprived areas have the most substandard childcare, and that schools in general provided better early years education than other settings.
The committee states in its first recommendation:
“We share the concern expressed by our witnesses about the lack of coherence in the Government’s … objectives for childcare”,
and that there was no evidence that the Government acknowledged,
“the trade-offs necessary to achieve the separate strands of policy—improving child outcomes, narrowing the attainment gap, and facilitating parental employment”.
The system is bureaucratic and difficult for parents to negotiate. Funding is complex and the quality of care is uneven. Some 28% of two year-olds in free childcare, for example, are in settings that have not been rated good or outstanding by Ofsted. Most of those settings are in areas of deprivation. I think that 28% of children in inadequate childcare is rather a lot of children. The funding system should certainly be simplified. The
committee saw the potential for using the new tax-free childcare scheme as an opportunity for a single mechanism for childcare subsidy. What options have the Government considered?
On reducing the cost to parents, the committee concluded that,
“in light of the evidence … an extension of the free early education entitlement would be unsustainable for the PVI sector”,
as others have already mentioned. Providers would not be able to,
“recoup the losses made on the delivery of free early education places if these were extended to 25 hours per week”,
as my noble friend Lady Andrews also said. The Government need to spell out as a fundamental issue the costed element of the Bill, as well as how the quality of child welfare and education will be guaranteed within those costings.
The Select Committee, in fact, recommended that,
“the Government should reconsider the current allocation of resources”,
and,
“consider whether the evidence supports targeting more resources at those children most likely to benefit”.
Has this been, and will it be, considered? A lack of coherence, a lack of detail about funding and a lack of priorities already make me think that the Bill needs a great deal of work—as the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, said, a lot of homework.
I have talked about quality and systems and I now want to turn to some confusions, which I share with others, including the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth. Who is the Bill for? Is it, as stated, for working parents, where all parents in a household must be earning the equivalent of eight hours a week at the national minimum wage? How does this square with Clause 1(12) of the Bill, which states that the term includes,
“any individual who … has parental responsibility … or … care of the child”?
For example, would it apply to a 65 year-old non-working grandparent who has charge of children due to the incapacity or death of their own child and needs childcare for their own welfare—I almost said “sanity”—and that of the child or children? Who will be responsible for delivering the content of the Bill? What will be the future role of local authorities, as mentioned before, and the Secretary of State? The Bill includes powers to allow the Secretary of State to establish a body corporate to fulfil the duties under the Bill. What exactly does that mean? How will it be used? Are there terms of reference for reviews or task forces? If so, what are they?
As I said earlier, the information needs to be clarified before it can be provided. Parents and others must be made aware of entitlements. Under the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities must establish and maintain a service offering advice and assistance. I understand that not all family information services are providing information about childcare. Children’s centres could be a good source for supplying information and advice, but they have been closing at a fearful rate—800 in the last few years, a drop of 35%. Where is the information and advice to come from?
There is no mention in the Bill of parents who have disabled children or children with special educational needs, as was discussed earlier. The parliamentary inquiry into childcare for disabled children in 2014 found evidence that the system is not working well. There is a huge lack of provision and parents are struggling to access entitlement to free early education. This is of course a barrier for those wanting to go to work. The Government must recognise and take account of additional costs to support the needs of disabled children, as well as the fact that the workforce and facilities are often not equipped to deal with disabled children or children with special needs.
Will the Government examine the system of delivery of childcare? Liz Truss, when a Minister, posed the question of why schools could not be open for longer hours, providing after-school and nursery childcare. The Select Committee heard of local “hubs”, as they were called, where childcare might be partly in schools and partly in the private, voluntary and independent sector. What would the financial implications of such a service be? Have the Government looked at various models of delivery and costed them?
I have, like others, posed many questions. We may all be in favour of increasing free childcare, but costs and an analysis of the options are important. Will the Minister, with his care about child development, urge the Government to provide a comprehensive review of childcare and to resist piecemeal approaches? Children deserve the best-quality system, but we do not have the best possible system by any means. The Bill pays little heed of that fact. Work needs to be done before the childcare system can best serve parents and children. I look forward to working with others to help produce that better provision.
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