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Childcare Bill

I thank the Minister for her reply and the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, for making several good points. He echoed one of my concerns in relation to Amendments Nos. 63 and 65 about crèches. People will be misled by the knowledge that these settings are registered with Ofsted into thinking that this indicates a certain level of quality and inspection which it does not so indicate. The Minister objected to the use of the word ““regular”” in my amendment because it was not defined. I know that the Government would never put vague words such as ““regular””, ““frequent”” or ““on an occasional basis”” into Bills without publishing guidelines which make it clear what the words mean. Of course, that is exactly what would have been done if my amendment had been accepted. If I had any glimmer of agreement from the Minister about the spirit of my amendment, I might put my mind towards improving it or drafting what I think should be in the guidance. But clearly there is no meeting of minds, so I would be wasting my time. I shall leave that issue for the moment. The Minister mentioned that the Government did not want nannies either to be registered compulsorily or to deliver the early years foundation stage. If I were paying many thousands of pounds to have a full-time nanny looking after my children in my home, the very least I would want would be for the nanny to be registered and to be delivering the early years foundation stage. However, that is as may be. When the Minister responded to my Amendments Nos. 82 and 85, I understood her to say that the word ““may”” is there because the Government have not yet made up their mind and consultation is still ongoing. This is like putting the cart before the horse. We are being asked to approve a Bill before we know the Government’s intention in relation to a great many issues. From what the Minister said about Amendment No. 84, which relates to a requirement for an inspection every three years, again I understand that the Government are not prepared to give Ofsted enough money to inspect such childcare provision every three years. I still think that waiting until concern exists is too late. I accept that Ofsted can walk in at any time and inspect such settings but, if it does not have the money to do it every three years, it will do so only if there is a trigger of some kind. That trigger will be a concern about the way the setting is dealing with children, and by then it is too late. I thank the Minister for her responses. In the meantime, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.