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Childcare Bill

My Lords, I think that on Report the Minister said both, but let us leave that aside for the moment. The suggestion that local authorities can assess the quantity of childcare without assessing the quality verges on the ridiculous. Without this amendment, the local authorities could do something as simple as saying, ““In street A we have 100 places, in street B we have another 100 places, and in street C we have another 100 places, so the total is 300 places””—it could be just a totting-up exercise or a number-crunching exercise. At the very least, the local authority would have to check that each early years setting has a satisfactory Ofsted report. I hope that putting the word ““quality”” into the Bill, as I am trying to do today, would mean that the local authority would do a good deal more than that—but at the very least, it would have to do that. The Minister mentioned the private and voluntary sector, which is very much behind this amendment. People from the sector are very anxious that local authorities should understand the need for quality and are very distressed that Ofsted is not to look at the quality assurance programmes that many of them have in place. These are very much the drivers of ongoing improvement in the early years sector. The word ““quality”” may appear in some of the later clauses, but it is vital that the concept is more than implicit in all parts of the Bill, especially where we refer to local authorities’ duties. It seems inconceivable that local authorities could carry out the duty to assess sufficient childcare without taking quality into consideration. It is very difficult to understand why the Minister does not feel able to accept this amendment, knowing the commitment that he has to improving the quality of childcare in this country and the commitment that the Government have put behind it in the form of money. For those reasons, I must test the opinion of the House. On Question, Whether the said amendment (No. 2) shall be agreed to? Their Lordships divided: Contents, 117; Not-Contents, 121. Clause 7 [Duty to secure prescribed early years provision free of charge]: