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Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge): Does the hon. Lady recognise that it is important to give parents the opportunity to work part-time, if that is their preference? Does she agree that a great step in that direction will be achieved by the introduction of the working families tax credit and child care tax credit, which the Government intend to introduce in the autumn? Those are policies which the Conservatives are opposing; how can the hon. Lady oppose them when it is of such advantage to parents to be able to work part-time?
Mrs. Spelman: I shall come to the WFTC later. Part-time working is more compatible with school provision, but part-time workers often find that their leave is not concordant with school holidays, which leaves us with the problem of children tending to become institutionalised. Children need to learn at home as well.
Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West): Would my hon. Friend care to comment on the fact that the real growth in part-time working happened during the 1980s and early 1990s? At that time, Labour Members did not consider part-time jobs to be proper jobs, but now they are in government, and part-time work is the only form of employment that is growing, they think it is most important to encourage that sort of employment.
Mrs. Spelman: I agree and I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, because it gives me an opportunity to nail a myth. The growth in early years education is not the invention of any one political party; it reflects changing practice in the workplace, not only in this country, but throughout the western world. Twenty years ago, far fewer women wanted to go out to work when their children were in the early years category, but with wider educational and employment opportunities for women has
come a greater desire to do so. I should not like the debate, which should focus on the needs of the child, to be diverted by false claims of victory in matters of employment.
Mr. Bernard Jenkin (North Essex): May I draw my hon. Friend's attention to the damage that is being done to existing nursery school provision by additional regulations? I have received a letter from a playgroup in Wivenhoe in my constituency; it is a charitable institution which receives voluntary help. Its pupils are being siphoned off--in some cases unnecessarily--into the new early years education provision in state schools; and the Government's minimum wage legislation is having a damaging effect on its financial viability, as is the requirement for three weeks paid leave, rising to four, and the need to pay higher national insurance contributions on wages in excess of £105 a week. Those damaging measures have forced the playgroup to move to cheaper premises and to cut staff--is it Government policy to do that?
Mrs. Spelman: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention; he will find that later parts of my speech deal with those issues, but he has provided another example of the problem. The phenomenon he describes is not confined to one part of the country, but is widespread.
I am concerned that increasing the number of hours of early years provision should not be detrimental to the needs of young children. The needs of many young, often single, parents may also be properly catered for by stability and security of provision throughout the early years. Whether they are young, old, single or married, all parents of young children need support, advice and encouragement. Parent evenings offer invaluable opportunities to get an angle on how to handle one's own child, but, sadly, not all parents take that opportunity. I am worried about the Government undermining parental and family support through the child care tax credit, because it can only be used for paid, registered child care, which means that there is little practical support when other family members and much-loved informal carers care for young children.
There is a debate about what quality means and what children are being taught at this stage in their education. Adults often think of easily quantifiable goals such as the age at which a child learns to read, write or count. We have forgotten how much we learned informally as young children through creative play, experiments and games. I draw the Minister's attention to an article that appeared in Nursery World on 8 April this year which compares and contrasts the Scottish system with the English early years curriculum. Approaching the issue from the child's angle, it asks: would a child prefer an adult who creates opportunity for play, improves communication and stimulates his or her interest in a happy environment, or would a child rather be with adults who have goals that will establish expectations for him or her based on what most children can do by the end of the reception year? I was horrified to read that, according to the Government's consultation document about early learning goals, my four-year-old might be expected to:
Those goals do not cater for children who are disadvantaged by the fact that English is not their first language or who have a learning difficulty. Boys and girls make different developmental progress. I have children of both sexes and I have seen how four-year-old boys take a different approach to learning. It is interesting to watch the way in which girls settle into a nursery setting, interact with each other, take out their books and get on with it while the chaps tumble around on the floor.
There is also the question of the range of early years education, to which some hon. Members have alluded already. There is no doubt that parents have demanded more early years provision. I am astonished by the range and quality of early years education in this country. When I moved to my constituency of Meriden, I was surprised by the level of nursery provision available throughout the Solihull borough. I freely admit that the nursery vouchers scheme proposed by the previous Conservative Government was wholly inappropriate for that borough--but I do not want to be distracted into a discussion about how successful that was not.
The fact is that there is a high level of state provision in my borough, which aims to ensure total provision for all three-year-olds by 2000. However, I also observe that private provision is struggling to compete and that parental choice is diminishing. Two nurseries in my constituency that will have to close this year have approached me. Both nurseries predate the establishment of the state nursery that is attached to the local primary school, and one of them has been around for about 40 years. In that case, mothers got together and provided playgroup-nursery support in order to meet local demand in the community. The nursery is situated in the local church hall and is an important economic link for that church.
Two things have happened to nurseries in my area. First, the creation of the state nursery has encouraged parents to take up places there because they are afraid that they may otherwise not secure reception places. There is no better place than this House to speak the truth about what is happening in the community and the subtle constraints being placed upon choice.
Mr. John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings):
The other side of that coin is that the space allocated to nurseries within primary schools is preventing expansion and development for older children. That is happening in my constituency. The spin-off is that popular schools have less room to expand their facilities for older children because they are offering nursery provision that is already locally established in the private sector.
Mrs. Spelman:
My hon. Friend makes a valid point. The schools in my area that have expanded to provide state nursery education are stretched for space for other ages.
As my hon. Friend the Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) said, the Government's new employment legislation has compounded the strangulation of private provision. The people who run the two nurseries in my constituency that are to close have cited specifically the effect of the introduction of the minimum wage upon the economics of their operations. When they approached me, they were unaware that, under minimum wage legislation, they would be required to pay maternity and annual leave.
They were horrified that their small establishments--which grew out of ad hoc arrangements and are supported in the community--would be knocked sideways by that heavy-handed employment legislation.
That pattern is replicated up and down the country. The Pre-School Learning Alliance calculates that about 1,700 pre-schools are threatened with closure this year in addition to the 1,500 that closed in 1997 and 1998. The Department for Education and Employment disputes those figures, but its claim of a net loss of 100 playgroups is definitely flawed as it is based on social services statistics, which include changes of name, ownership and address. We must approach closure statistics with caution.
Mr. Ian Bruce (South Dorset):
Many mums who help with playgroups are volunteers and are pleased to receive about £8 for a 4-hour session to help with their own costs. Is it not ridiculous to rule that those mothers must be paid £3.60 an hour or work for nothing when the old arrangements worked sensibly? That must be an unintended consequence of the Government's minimum wage legislation.
"form sentences sometimes using punctuation."
What if he cannot do that? Does it mean that he will be labelled a failure at age four? It is extraordinary that that should be considered a "desirable outcome".
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