Meeting of the Parliament (Virtual) 23 July 2020
I thank the minister for circulating her statement in advance. The new guidance on bubbles and blended care will be welcome news to many people watching these proceedings.
The minister will be aware of the huge strength of feeling on the issue of childcare. Our inboxes are full of letters from parents who have illustrated the very direct link, out there in the real world, between childcare and their ability to go back to work.
Covid has been impactful—no one disagrees with that—but it has been clear to Parliament for some time that the Government’s plans to expand childcare have been making painfully slow progress and that they were not on track long before the current crisis hit. There was very little in today’s announcement to fill parents with any confidence that the minister’s commitments to childcare will be delivered any time soon.
How many of our 32 local authorities have committed to still offer 1,140 hours of childcare from August? Many nurseries in the private, voluntary and independent sector have confirmed that they have the capacity to deliver 1,140 hours, so why are councils—which have inevitably used their childcare budgets for Covid—not being supported to deliver those hours with the capacity that we already have?
Given that the policy was a national one, why have we, in effect, created a postcode lottery in childcare in this country, whereby someone’s ability to participate in the workplace is now dictated by who they pay their council tax to? Surely that must be unacceptable to the minister, as it is to the many thousands of parents who have made their voices loudly heard on the issue.