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Childcare Bill

moved Amendment No. 63:"Page 16, line 23, at end insert—" ““( ) Subsection (3) shall not apply in circumstances where childcare is provided on a regular basis.”” The noble Baroness said: In moving Amendment No. 63, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 65, 82, 84 and 85 in the group. Amendments Nos. 63 and 65 relate to the exemptions of crèches and Amendments Nos. 82, 84 and 85 relate to school-run provision. On Amendments Nos. 63 and 65 I am still concerned about the exemption from regulation of crèches. I am not alone. The Early Childhood Forum, which consists of many organisations expert in childcare, shares my concerns. Although it is true that some older children spend very short periods of time in such facilities and their parents are in close proximity, crèches are also used inappropriately for very young children for periods of up to two hours and in circumstances where their parents may be quite far away. That may happen over and over again. In those circumstances, providing childcare is a specialist task. Will the Minister give further consideration of this deregulation in order to safeguard the quality of provision for these younger children? On 13 December in another place, my honourable friend Annette Brooke MP raised this matter. She pointed out that if something is not regulated it should perhaps not be considered as childcare at all, so that parents understand that it is unregulated. She accepted that,"““we do not want to create over-burdensome regulation when there are bound to be instances in which the temporary looking after of children will be required””." I agree with her. She pointed out that the exemption power states,"““in every case, providers that are exempted will be able to join the Ofsted Childcare Register and enjoy the benefits that it brings. In particular, we will ask Ofsted to encourage those providers for whom registration ceases to be compulsory to join the new register and continue to be tax creditable””." She then said:"““However, I am a little concerned that it might give even more credibility and strength to parents’ belief that a particular facility is regulated when it is not””.—[Official Report, Commons Standing Committee D, 13/12/05; col. 220.]" Even a notice on the wall telling parents that the crèche is neither regulated nor inspected would help parents to understand the nature of the place in which they are leaving their children. In an attempt to address the matter, I have tabled amendments to provide that crèches would not be exempt if they provided childcare on a regular basis. Amendments Nos. 82, 84 and 85 would ensure that later years’ provision, including that run by a school, is regulated to the same standards as at present. Also, they would ensure that incorporating school-run provision within the whole-school inspection leads to no diminution in quality standards. I welcome the Government’s decision following consultation to require all provision for six and seven year-olds to be registered. That is a welcome example of the Government listening to the consultation. However, I am very keen to ensure that the changes to regulation and inspection do not in any way diminish the quality standards of the school-aged childcare sector. The detailed content of the new regulations are not set out in the Bill. As a minimum, we must incorporate the list of criteria set out in Clauses 58 and 62 both for six and seven year-olds and for eights and over. I also want to ensure that the new regulations for six and seven year-olds will not be just a paper-based registration process. While I support regulation that is as light-touch as it can be, I would not want to see a situation where providers are inspected only if a problem arises or a complaint is made. That is why Amendment No. 84 requires the chief inspector to inspect later years provision,"““not less than every three years””." I beg to move.