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Childcare Bill

My Lords, like the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, I, too, had in mind the question asked earlier today by the noble Lord, Lord Adebowale, about the families in which the parents are either alcoholics or drug addicts. In many of those cases, the grandparents will have the burden of looking after the children. Yet they will not be considered to be the primary carers and will therefore not have the rights to training, information and advice that the primary carer with the parenting role would have. On the other hand, I am also very aware that many grandparents say that children are very different today and that things were different in their day. Many grandparents, faced with the job of looking after one of today’s young people for extended periods, would greatly benefit from hearing from experts about the latest thinking on child development and how children have to face a very different world today from the one the grandparents faced when they were growing up or when they brought up their own children. There are many advantages to allowing grandparents to have access to the help, advice and information that is available to other people in the role of a parent. This is a very modest amendment in the direction in which the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, would really like to go eventually. It would not preclude the local authorities from making a modest charge for these services if there was an additional financial burden. I really do not think there is anything in it that would prevent them making such a charge. I see no major spending commitment in an amendment such as this one, so I really do commend it to the Minister.