The consultation on the Childcare Bill proposes new legislation, which for the first time gives parents a legal right to accessible, high-quality childcare and early years provision. It is expected to become law by 2008.
The DfES said it was looking for views on plans 'to place early years services and childcare on a secure long-term footing' and ways to reform the regulation and inspection regimes for childcare and early years. Under the plans, local authorities must:
* provide sufficient childcare for children up to 14 (or 16 for disabled children)
* give parents with children aged nought to 19 access to a full range of parenting information
* improve the well-being of under-fives and close the gap between rich and poor.
In order to support the duty to improve outcomes for young children there will be a statutory requirement on local authorities to set up 'a pro-active, accessible early years service focused on the under-fives and a new power giving statutory status to guidance on the children's centre delivery model', the document says.
Local authorities are also required to work closely with private, voluntary and community providers to develop services, and will need to 'assess the local childcare market' and compare parental demand for childcare with the current and planned availability of places. This will 'provide a context for local planning through children's trusts' and enable them to work with providers from all sectors 'to fill gaps in the market'.
In addition, the Government is also proposing a new legal framework that removes the distinction between care and education and the existing separate regulatory and inspection requirements.
This legal framework 'will underpin the new quality framework which will take an integrated approach to care and education' and bring together Birth to Three Matters and the Foundation Stage with elements of the National Standards for Daycare. Its working title is the Early Development and Learning Framework.
The Government also plans an Ofsted register 'of providers of childcare who have committed to keeping children safe and well cared for'. To be included, providers will have to comply with minimum standards of provision. It will also be compulsory for childminders 'who care for children from the end of the Foundation Stage up to their eighth birthday'
to be on the register.
The consultation also questions whether money spent on Investors in Children should be directed elsewhere. 'In the light of our proposals for a stronger quality element in the new regulatory framework, we wonder whether the IiC scheme provides the most effective use of resources,' it states.
Gill Haynes, chief executive of the National Childminding Association, welcomed the plans, but said there were concerns about proposals to amend the childcare inspection and regulation framework. 'The introduction of an Ofsted-run voluntary approval scheme for childcarers caring for children over five years old, while fitting with the wider Government agenda for lighter touch regulation, could leave parents confused about the difference between registered and approved childcarers,' she said.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, called for 'a clear and uniform national framework for partnership working'
and 'targets for involvement of private and voluntary sectors by local authorities'.
'Legislative proposals for the future of childcare and early years provision in England: Implementing the ten-year strategy for childcare' is at www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations.