Childcare Bill

I suggest that the hon. Lady look at our manifesto proposals for parents in relation to flexibility of maternity pay and benefit. Those proposals aim to give families a choice in the provisions they make to look after their children, and in regard to whether the mother or the father wants to go back into the workplace. Choice for families is the underlying principle that we are following in all our proposals, and, indeed, in our response to the Bill. We know that parents are under strain, and the predicament of the modern family is often particularly difficult. A quarter of all families are lone-parent families, and of the other three quarters, which are couple households, the majority are households with both adults working. In financial terms, a shocking 42 per cent. of families are in arrears with their consumer debt payments, and with the mean age of first-time mothers nearing 30, many parents are now having to cope with the double hit of simultaneously caring for children and parents. No wonder eight out of 10 parents say that they are under strain. Those are the families that we are all keen to help. The Bill contains measures that attempt to ensure a sufficient supply of child care for families across the country. We support the idea of ensuring that sufficiency of supply, but all too often today, the problem is that families have little choice in the child care that they can use. The emphasis that the Bill places on the working families tax credit, and on the families that receive it, will yet again restrict choice, as has been mentioned earlier. The rising cost of child care places and the lack of real choice mean that many parents are left using the only child care available, rather than the child care that they would really like to use. That lack of choice prevents parents from raising their children as they see fit and from placing them in the environment that they believe will best meet their individual needs. That can result in children being less happy, and in their deriving less benefit from their child care. Increasing the options available to parents is key to producing the kind of child care that works for families. Just as all children are different, the child care that they need to grow and flourish will be different. That is why, as I said earlier, we want policies that are designed to give parents more flexibility and more choice of child care, and more support for the most important job that they will ever do. That is why we do not believe that a ““one size fits all”” policy will meet the needs of all children. We believe that the Bill is too restrictive. Too often, as we have seen, the Government’s efforts to make child care more available, however well intentioned, have had an impact on other providers in the sector without producing the net gains for child care that the Government envisaged. Many Members will know full well that Government provision frequently forces the closure of private and voluntary sector child care services offering smaller groups and more flexible care.