§ 13. Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge)What progress has been made in delivering child care information to parents. [R] [99353]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Ms Margaret Hodge)Building on the innovative work of my hon. Friend, excellent progress has been made to improve parents' access to good quality child care information. All early years development and child care partnerships are developing local children's information services that meet minimum service standards. Yesterday, I launched ChildcareLink, a freephone national child care information line and child care website.
§ Mrs. CampbellAs the unremunerated chair of opportunity links, I have a relevant registered interest in the provision of child care information. Does my hon. Friend agree that easily accessible information on child care is vital to help parents to return to work? Does she also agree that information must be accurate, timely and bang up to the minute in order to be effective?
§ Ms HodgeI agree entirely that information is crucial, and I was delighted when I recently visited a site in a supermarket to discover that 200 hits a day were made by people matching their child care needs to child care places. We are funding local authorities generously to ensure that they can keep their information networks up to date. This year, that funding has increased by 150 per cent. We are considering the further assistance that we can provide to monitor and support partnerships and thus ensure that their information is up to date.