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Childcare Bill

The Minister will not be surprised to hear that I greatly welcome the amendment. We discussed at length the issue involved. It was an important issue for Liberal Democrat Members, because we think that we are moving towards listening to children and young people—although the approach taken is gradual, despite the Government’s having introduced some good innovative ideas and techniques in other spheres. The issue the amendment raises is whether the Bill should state that very young children should be listened to. I think that that is very important, because it is part of a whole cultural shift. We want our young people to participate. We want to engage with them. We want this to be a two-way process. In areas such as this—the provision of a service for very young children—why should there not be means to ascertain the views of those children? Excellent work has been done by a number of charities. We have talked about the National Children’s Bureau scheme, ““Listening as a way of life””, and the excellent outcomes that it produced. However, the difficulty that we had in Committee was whether young children should be put in a position where they might be expected to comment on overall strategy; that seemed to be the impediment that prevented us from getting a sensible amendment. I am therefore extremely pleased that the issue continued to be discussed—although I think that my noble Friend Baroness Walmsley must have been more persuasive than me. Nevertheless, I welcome this measure, and particularly the fact that Lord Adonis took it very seriously and came up with wording that will take us forward. I look forward to seeing reports on, and monitoring of, some of the outcomes from this measure. Lords amendment agreed to.