Childcare Bill

No, I am going to make some more progress. I am going to return to the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses and I suggest that it would be good if the Secretary of State listened to the professionals out there, whose concerns about the Bill are evident. Deborah Lawson, chairman of the PANN section committee has said:"““It is important to find the right balance and not have unrealistic expectations of what young children can achieve. Research has indicated the dangers of introducing formal education too early as this can lead to dissatisfaction in later years. Prescriptive formal education can be too much too early for children under five.””" Similarly, Peter Moss, professor of early childhood provision at the Institute of Education in London—not known, I have to say, as a hotbed of conservatism—has said that we risk creating"““an ‘industrial model’ of early years education in which workers follow a manual to ensure children conform . . . All we will do is have a kind of template and check whether children fit into it.””" That is yet another example of the Government’s mechanistic, target-driven approach to development. It is time, I believe, that the Government stood back and allowed children to enjoy their childhood and grow up at their own pace rather than forcing them into formalised learning. It is simply ridiculous to impose a national curriculum for children from birth. I wonder what is next on the Minister’s agenda—testing for two-year-olds? It is not only the experts at the Institute of Education or those who are working professionally with children who take this viewpoint. Margaret Morrissey of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations has also said:"““We are now in danger of taking away children’s childhood when they leave the maternity ward. From the minute you are born and your parents go back to work, as the Government has encouraged them to do, you are going to be ruled by the Department for Education. It is absolute madness.””" Another example comes from June O’Sullivan, chief executive of the Westminster Children’s Society, who said:"““My real concern is that we will have death by worksheet at 2. How do you turn out creative thinkers and entrepreneurs if you ask them to act to a worksheet at the age of 2?””"