| Parliament
returned from the summer recess in October, and the All Party
Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC) has held two meetings
since then:
• A joint meeting with the APPG Childcare on the Childcare
Bill with the Minister, the Rt. Hon. Beverley Hughes MP on 14
November 2005
• A joint meeting with the APPG AIDS on children and aids
with presentations from UNICEF and a peer educator from Botswana
on 15 November 2005
The
Childcare Bill
The
Minister for Children, Young People and Families, the Rt. Hon.
Beverley Hughes MP, gave a brief overview of the context of the
Bill, and a summary of its proposals. The Bill takes forward proposals
from Choice for parents, the best start for children: a ten
year strategy for childcare and the DfES consultation on
the Childcare Bill – Legislative proposals for the future
of childcare and early years provision in England: Implementing
the Ten Year Strategy for Childcare.
The
Bill, which will form the legislative basis to the childcare strategy
and the Every Child Matters programme, will improve outcomes
for young children, especially disadvantaged children, and will
ensure parents have flexible choices about work/life balance.
While the Bill builds on recent developments, the Minister said
that there are still challenges which the Bill attempts to address:
- parents accessing affordable, suitable, high quality and consistent
childcare;
- poorly integrated services;
- complex regulation and inspection regimes;
- services that are less effective in lifting families out of
poverty.
The
Bill places three duties on Local Authorities:
- as far as is reasonably practicable to secure sufficient childcare
for working parents;
- to improve outcomes for all children and reduce inequalities;
- to provide information, advice and assistance to parents of
children aged 0-20 years.
The Bill also introduces a new regulatory and quality regime from
birth to the end of the Foundation Stage. Registration will be
compulsory for childcare providers for children aged 0-8, and
voluntary for providers for children aged 8-14.
Areas
of comment and concern raised at the meeting
*
The provision of childcare for disabled children
* Affordability and sustainability
* Concerns surrounding duty on local authorities to ensure sufficient
childcare in local area for working parents only.
* Does Clause 6 (the duty on the Local Authorities to secure sufficient
childcare) confer an individual right* And, related to this, how
can a parent complain or exercise their right if there is insufficient
means of childcare in their area*
* Geographical variation in cost and quality of childcare and
the need to look specifically at areas where it costs more (for
example, London)
* What do "sufficient" and "reasonably practicable"
mean*
* Emotional and brain development of under-3s
* Literacy and numeracy standards and assessments
* The effect of childcare environments on children in their early
years
* Teaching parental responsibilities
* Involvement of parents in Children’s Centres and of the
voluntary sector in extended schools
* Impact on forces families posted abroad
Future
meetings
The
Officers of the APPGC have decided the remit of the Group’s
work programme for the forthcoming year. The Group will, as usual,
hold meetings focused on legislation relevant to children, for
example on the Children and Adoption Bill, Education Bill etc.
The remainder of the Group’s focus will mainly be on the
implementation of Every Child Matters and the Children
Act 2004. This will include hearing from the new Children’s
Commissioner for England, Professor Al Aynsley-Green; development
of children’s trusts; progress on information sharing etc.
The APPGC will also hold three topic based meetings, one on each
of the following subjects: children’s rights in practice,
child health, and youth justice.
Two
meetings will be held before Christmas:
• 5 December, Current and forthcoming legislation on children’s
issues. Including a presentation on the Child Impact Assessment
project which analyses proposed legislation for its impact on
children against the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
the European Convention on Human Rights and the five outcomes
for children and young people
• 13 December, A presentation from Anthony Douglas, Chief
Executive of CAFCASS on the consultation document Every Day
Matters: new directions for CAFCASS.
Please
contact Alison Linsey, Clerk to the Group (email: alinsey@ncb.org.uk):
•
To be added to the email mailing list to receive minutes and
notices of meetings
• For copies of minutes from any of the meetings
• For a free copy of the Group’s report ‘Commitment
to Children’
• For any further information about the Group
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