§ Mrs. MahonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what action he has taken towards developing a national child care strategy. [29094]
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe Department has consulted widely, and co-hosted a conference on 19 January with the Minister for Women, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Ms Ruddock), at which we met with child care experts to hear their views on key aspects of the Strategy. My right hon. Friend Secretary of State has set up a child care unit within the Department to draw up, in liaison with Departments across Whitehall, a national child care strategy consultation document which we plan to issue after the spring budget. After consultation on the document we plan to launch the final strategy later in the year.
We have also developed plans to spend the first tranches of the £300 million child care package announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last November, and we look forward to early benefits on the ground as some of the funding becomes available in 1998–99. In 1998–99 the £25 million receipts from the Windfall Tax for England will enable us to:
114Whelp support new child care provision for children who are four years old and in full time education;boost the provision of child care in FE colleges with a new grant to the Further Education Funding Council; andsupport activities such as training and information services which will help to develop the infrastructure and capacity of the child care sector to meet the challenge of the huge expansion of out of school child care when lottery funding comes on stream in 1999.We have made £50 million available to the Out of School Child Care Initiative over the next five years. For 1998–99, this means that funding has more than doubled (from £4.1 million to £10.1 million) and will create 20,000 new places.