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Child Protection

11. David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con): If she will include paid children's entertainers working in private homes in her list of those barred from working with children following conviction for sexual offences against children. [58789]

The Minister for Schools (Jacqui Smith): All those who are on the children's barred list, as defined by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill, will be barred from any work that involves frequent teaching, training, supervising, caring for, advising or providing treatment for a child. This will include children's entertainers who are engaged in such activities. Parents will be able to check the barred status of individuals whom they employ to perform those activities.

David Tredinnick: I have already presented a petition to the Home Office from thousands of my constituents about the activities of a professional child entertainer who was working in the Hinckley area. He was, and is, on the sex offenders register, but because he goes to people's homes rather than to schools he does not have to be vetted or have a licence. He has subsequently moved to another part of the county following press reports, and I understand that he is now working there, having changed the name of his company. Will the Minister give us an assurance that the measures that she has just described will cover this situation? Does not she think that it is time that such individuals were properly licensed?

Jacqui Smith: I have just outlined the strengthened provisions that will come into operation following the enactment of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill. Those provisions make it clear that any individual who is involved in frequent teaching, training, supervising, caring for, advising or providing treatment for a child will be able to be monitored under the new scheme. Parents will also be able to check the individual circumstances of the people who are engaged in that work. That represents a strengthening of the present position.

Child Care

12. Ms Diana R. Johnson (Kingston upon Hull, North) (Lab): What range of options the Government expect to be available for child care. [58790]

The Minister for Children and Families (Beverley Hughes): The number of child care places has doubled from 600,000 in 1997 to more than 1.2 million in 2005, supported by investment of more than £17 billion of
 
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public funding. This enables parents to choose from a wide range of options, including child minders, nursery care, and out-of-school and holiday provision. We are building on this further by offering high quality child care through extended schools and, in disadvantaged areas, through children's centres.

Ms Johnson: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that response. Will the provisions of the Childcare Bill that place a statutory duty on local authorities to ensure sufficient child care places be matched by the necessary funding arrangements, so that families in my constituency will see the materialisation of extra child care places that they can afford?

Beverley Hughes: My hon. Friend is right. The provision in the Childcare Bill of a duty on local authorities to ensure that there is sufficient child care involves not only a sufficient quantity but a sufficient range and flexibility of child care to meet local parents' needs. That will have to be part of a local authority's obligations. Of course, that does not mean that the local authorities themselves will provide that child care, but they will have sufficient resources to stimulate the market and ensure that it responds with the quantity and range of provision that local parents need.

Mr. Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): With 100,000 under-threes now in full-time nurseries, is the Minister concerned at the rising number of very young children—some as young as three months old—who spend all week in these full-time institutions, sometimes for up to 60 hours?

Beverley Hughes: The hon. Gentleman is being unnecessarily alarmist. There is clear research evidence that high quality early-years experience for three and four-year-old children considerably enhances their development and, in comparison to their peers who do not have that experience, gives them a considerable advantage at the start of their primary school education. Clearly, many parents of younger children will want a range of options. That is why, in addition to stimulating the provision of good quality child care, this Government—unlike the previous Conservative Government—have made it possible for mothers and fathers who are balancing their work and home life to make the decisions that they feel are right about where their very young children should be cared for.

Youth Facilities (Stoke-on-Trent)

13. Mr. Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent, South) (Lab): What steps the Government are taking to improve facilities and increase the availability of activities for teenagers in Stoke-on-Trent. [58791]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Phil Hope): The current Education and Inspections Bill will require local authorities to secure access for young people to educational and recreational leisure time activities, as proposed in the "Youth Matters" Green Paper and yet another progressive measure that the Liberal Democrats voted against last night. Our next steps document, published this month, also provided extra resources for young
 
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people to put spending power directly into their hands through the youth opportunity and youth capital funds. Those funds will be worth more than £593,000 in Stoke-on-Trent over the next two financial years.

Mr. Flello: My hon. Friend will no doubt be aware of the excellent work already done by many local voluntary groups working with young people in my city. One of the best ways in which my hon. Friend could help with that work would be to visit my constituency. Has he any plans to do so in the near future?

Phil Hope: I am very grateful for the invitation. Given that the programme motion was passed last night, I will probably have a little more time to do so after 18 May. Empowering young people through offering such resources and facilities is at the heart of our policy on youth matters. What is crucial is that young people have a voice, a chance to be heard and a real influence over the decisions of organisations, voluntary and statutory, that affect their lives.

Social Behaviour

14. Mr. Graham Allen (Nottingham, North) (Lab): If she will bring forward an option for local authorities to give the same priority to teaching social behaviour in primary schools as is given to numeracy and literacy; and if she will make a statement. [58792]

The Minister for Schools (Jacqui Smith): Teaching social behaviour helps children learn. That is why we have made the social and emotional aspects of learning programme available to all primary schools. Heads are best placed to decide how that work should be organised in their schools, but they have the flexibility to allocate dedicated time, as part of the recommended whole-curriculum approach.

Mr. Allen: Will my right hon. Friend thank her departmental officials and the local education authority team, led by Edwina Grant, in Nottingham, for the innovative work that they are doing on the promotion of social behaviour in the city? Will my right hon. Friend consider the very first amendment to the Education and Inspections Bill, which suggests that local education authorities should have a duty to promote the emotional well-being and pro-social behaviour of every child? I hope that I have got the words right: I should have done, because I tabled the amendment.

Jacqui Smith: I will of course look in great detail at my hon. Friend's amendment. I am also happy to praise the work of my officials and of Nottingham local authority, as well as that of my hon. Friend, who has pushed hard the approach to social behaviour as an opportunity for children, young people and families in Nottingham. I am looking with great attention at the way in which that exciting innovation will work in Nottingham and more widely.

Sir Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield) (Con): I am sure that the Minister will agree—she said so, to all intents and purposes, in her answer—that good discipline and good social behaviour can contribute to the ability of young people to learn better in schools.
 
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What support do schools get from parents? Does she agree that the support of parents is essential, and what can the Government do to encourage parents to support good social behaviour?

Jacqui Smith: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That is why, in the Education and Inspections Bill, we responded to the calls from teacher associations to make clear teachers' unambiguous legal right to discipline. The hon. Gentleman is also correct about parental responsibility, and the Bill will also extend the ability of schools to engage in parenting contracts with parents before the child or young person is excluded from school. Both those factors are important to ensuring that our teachers are able to teach, our children are able to learn, and parents take responsibility for their children's behaviour—all things that the Liberal Democrats voted against yesterday.

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