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Childcare Bill

Although I would certainly agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton, that childcare should not be about a tick-box mentality, I am afraid that I prefer the Government’s wording and so do not support these amendments. I do not for a minute believe that the wording in the Bill would lead to any kind of levelling down, nor do I think that it would produce the sort of uniformity that the noble Baroness fears. The Bill is not about an opportunity to clone children. Children start life in many different circumstances. Through no fault of their own, some of them start out under very difficult circumstances, yet they may have the potential and the desire to reach the very highest level in society and the very highest level of achievement. When the state has limited resources, it is for the state to direct those resources at the have-nots and not so much at the haves. I am not just talking about money; I am talking about caring parents, knowledgeable parents and surroundings that contribute to the child’s good health, for example. Children may have all those things, so the state does not necessarily need to provide them. By concentrating the resources on the have-nots, we will be levelling up and certainly not levelling down. Although I agree with much of what the noble Baroness said, I do not agree with her desire to change the wording of the Bill.