I am pleased to participate in this important debate. It has been of a high calibre and there have been tremendous areas of agreement between hon. Members on both sides of the House, which is important. I am also pleased to follow the hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs. Moon), who made a serious contribution. I listened with great interest to what she said about her constituency and about expectations. I endorse what she said. We must always be realistic. We must not raise expectations too high and then not meet them. If we did, we as politicians would be criticised in the media and by parents and others who depend on child care. The hon. Lady made a very good speech.
Child care is a great concern in my constituency. Regrettably, many men and women have had to come to my surgery or write to me to say that, although they want to return to work, they cannot find the necessary child care. Either they cannot afford the costs of the existing provision, or they cannot get their child into the child care that they think the child needs. That very serious issue should concern us all. It is therefore opportune for all of us to consider ways in which to improve and increase child care provision but, as many hon. Members have said, we must do so with quality as a top priority. We are talking about quality for our children and for the future.
It is also very important that child care be affordable. In today’s society, the cost of child care can be prohibitive for people who want to go back to work. If we do not make changes, society will suffer and the children will suffer, which is why this is such a serious issue for us all to debate and concern ourselves with.
I welcome the speech of my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May), which was excellent, moderate and constructive as usual. She was also very positive. Something that has come out of the debate is that we are all positive about going forward. My hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (John Bercow) made some very helpful and interesting contributions and interventions, which shows his commitment. We listened to him with interest. That said, Opposition Members have concerns about the Bill, which I would like to develop later in my short contribution.
I also pay tribute to the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke), who made a thought-provoking and measured speech. I did not agree with all of her contribution, as she would expect, but I agree with her comments on disabled children and their parents, an issue that the hon. Member for Bridgend also highlighted. It is a great concern that parents of disabled children do not find it easy to get the necessary child care, either because of cost or because of their special needs.
In my constituency, there are mothers of disabled children who would like to return to the workplace but simply cannot find provision of satisfactory quality, where they would be happy to leave their children and which has the necessary facilities. We should all be considering this important issue to ensure that such child care provision is dealt with satisfactorily.
I welcome the Bill in principle, because I am a strong supporter of the aims of providing quality and affordable child care for working families. Therefore the general thrust of the Bill is to be welcomed. An increase in provision and greater access to child care must be priorities in today’s society. Life today is more hectic. More men and women want to return to work whenever they can. When they have children, they obviously want the best for them, but they also want to get on with their careers, because that in itself can help their children. We heard from some hon. Members that in today’s society, in which people have children later in life, they may have young children and be responsible for elderly parents at the same time. Life is demanding now for people. At the age when many people now have children, they often have elderly parents to care for as well.
Choice and opportunities are two issues that have come up in several contributions from Opposition Members and Government Members. We passionately believe that there should be choice and that people should not be forced into just one form of provision. Parents should have a choice and feel comfortable. Some of the Secretary of State’s comments seemed to suggest that there was a greater emphasis among Government Members on one type of opportunity and less choice. I do not think that she meant that, or least I hope that she did not, because choice and variety of provision make the situation better for parents. Parents can make a choice about what they think is more appropriate for their children.
As I said in an intervention on the Secretary of State, child care costs are very high. We hear that costs in this country are probably among the highest in western Europe. They are prohibitive for certain people, particularly those who are returning to low-paid jobs. In London—my constituency is in south-east London—the costs are particularly high and are out of reach of many people on low incomes. Many parents are therefore forced to stay at home and look after their children—which might not be the best thing for them or for their children—because they cannot afford to pay for the child care that would enable them to go back into the workplace.
I am also concerned at the fall in the number of playgroups, pre-school places and childminder places in Greater London. Such schemes all offer parents greater choice. Many private and voluntary sector child care places have also closed, and that is regrettable. The Conservatives want more choice to be available to parents, and we would like to see more work being done with business and the voluntary sector to provide more affordable child care places, more childminders, more workplace nurseries and more clubs for older children.
Childcare Bill
Proceeding contribution from
David Evennett
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 28 November 2005.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Childcare Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
440 c81-3 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2024-04-21 11:20:41 +0100
URI
http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_281101
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_281101
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_281101