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'(1) Regulations may make provision, in relation to England, requiring—
(a) a person registered as an early years provider under Chapter 2 of Part 3, and
(b) a person who provides early years provision in respect of which, but for section 34(2) (exemption for provision for children aged 3 or over at certain schools), he would be required to be registered under that Chapter, to provide to the relevant person such individual child information as may be prescribed.
(2) In subsection (1), "the relevant person" means one or more of the following—
(a) the Secretary of State, and
(b) any prescribed person.
(3) Where any person within paragraph (b) of subsection (2) receives information by virtue of subsection (1), the Secretary of State may require that person to provide any such information—
(a) to the Secretary of State, or
(b) to any prescribed person.
(4) The Secretary of State may provide any individual child information—
(a) to any information collator,
(b) to any prescribed person, or
(c) to any person falling within a prescribed category.
(5) Any information collator—
(a) may provide any individual child information—
(i) to the Secretary of State, or
(ii) to any other information collator, and
(b) may at such times as the Secretary of State may determine or in prescribed circumstances provide such individual child information as may be prescribed—
(i) to any prescribed person, or
(ii) to any person falling within a prescribed category.
(6) Any person holding any individual child information (other than the Secretary of State or an information collator) may provide that information to—
(a) the Secretary of State,
(b) any information collator, or
(c) any prescribed person.
(7) No information received under or by virtue of this section shall be published in any form which includes the name of the child or children to whom it relates.
(8) Regulations under this section may provide that, in such circumstances as may be prescribed, the provision of information to a person other than the Secretary of State is to be treated, for the purposes of any provision of such regulations or this section, as compliance with any requirement imposed by or by virtue of any such provision and relating to the provision of information to the Secretary of State.
(9) In this section— "early years provision" has the meaning given by section 20; "individual child information" means information relating to and identifying individual children for whom early years provision is being or has been provided by a person mentioned in subsection (1)(a) or (b), whether obtained under subsection (1) or otherwise; "information collator" means any body which, for the purposes of or in connection with the functions of the Secretary of State relating to early years provision, is responsible for collating or checking information relating to children for whom such provision is made;
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"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations; "regulations" means regulations made by the Secretary of State.'.—[Beverley Hughes.]
Brought up, and read the First time.
The Minister for Children and Families (Beverley Hughes): I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: Government new clause 3—Provision of information about young children: transitory provision.
Government new clause 4—Provision of information about children: Wales.
Government amendments Nos. 26 and 27.
Beverley Hughes: The purpose of the new clauses and amendments is to allow for a significant improvement in the quality and accuracy of the information we collect about early years provision—that is, integrated child care and early education for children under school age. It will enable more accurate funding to follow the delivery of nursery entitlement for three and four-year-olds and provide essential support to local authorities in the fulfilment of those duties under the Bill.
The provisions will enable the Secretary of State and other prescribed persons, such as local authorities, to collect individual child-level information from all registered providers of early years provision in England, in line with the reformed regulatory and inspection framework in the Bill. In Wales, the powers will apply under relevant legislation, consistent with the regulatory framework in Wales. The powers are not to demand information from parents but for local authorities to collect information that providers will hold already.
A key purpose of the power is to manage better the funding of free nursery education provision. At present, the information collected by the Government from local government about free entitlement is aggregated information on all the children enrolled with each private, voluntary or independent provider, rather than individual child-level information. Holding such child-level information will reduce the risk of double counting, which we think is happening to some extent at present, where parents use more than one provider for their free nursery entitlement.
We are building on the success of that entitlement, progressively increasing the number of hours and weeks, so an increasing amount of public funding is being used to support it. It is thus important that providers receive money for what they actually provide for each child.
There are some other reasons for the provisions. The duty for local authorities to improve outcomes for all children and reduce inequalities is one of the cornerstones of the Bill. Local authorities need a full range of information about children in early years provision, to ensure that they are fulfilling that duty.
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It is also important for central Government to have that information to evaluate effectively the success of the policy. This enabling power to collect information from all early years providers will show how much provision each child receives, and where, and will supply outcome measurements, such as the foundation stage profile.
We shall hold full consultations on draft regulations carrying the detail of the proposals. We shall also take careful account of the views of stakeholders, providers and local authorities on how the power is implemented. The ability to collect accurate and robust individual child-level information is essential to ensure the proper allocation of funding and to support local authorities in delivering better outcomes for all children. Amendments Nos. 26 and 27 are consequential, to ensure that the provisions on data collection can be commenced by the appropriate authority at the appropriate time.
I commend the new clause to the House.
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