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Childcare Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for his comments on my amendments and to other noble Lords who have spoken to them. First, I shall address the issue of ““accredited””. The Minister talked to us about the qualifications that the childcare workforce will require. Of course, I accept that people cannot gain qualifications unless they undergo tests, examinations or assessments set by an accredited organisation. However, these are the minimum qualifications that we require from the workforce and we want to go a lot further. The list that the noble Lord read out concerned the topics on which training can be delivered but he did not mention the word ““accredited””. The intention behind my amendment is to attempt to get some reference to quality in the Bill. It is stuffed full of ““quantity”” but there is nothing about ““quality””. With the amendment, I am trying to ensure that we know that the quality of the majority of the training delivered to the workforce is of an expert standard. The Minister said that he did not want to restrict local authorities only to delivering accredited training. Looking at where my amendments sit in the Bill, I do not think that they would preclude local authorities from providing additional ad hoc training that did not lead to a qualification from an accredited organisation. However, I want to ensure that the majority of training provided by local authorities is of a high quality and accredited by an appropriate organisation. Perhaps the Minister could have a look at this issue and come back to me on it because I do not think that my amendments would have the effect that he said they would. I move on to Amendment No. 64. The Minister said that he thought that making it a requirement to undergo training before registration would put off some people who might otherwise enter the childminding workforce. I have to tell him that the National Childminding Association does not agree with him, and it represents hundreds and thousands of childminders. Anyone who is put off doing a job by a requirement to do basic training should not be doing that job. I was amazed to hear that Ofsted will now be assessing likelihoods: it will decide whether it thinks that a person will be able to qualify later and will then decide whether that person can go ahead and do so. That is the most extraordinary statement that I have heard from the Minister in quite a long time. Perhaps he would clarify it for me before I withdraw the amendment, or perhaps he would like to write to me.