§ 1. Caroline Flint (Don Valley)What steps she is taking to encourage those responsible for economic development and regeneration to include child care provision in their strategy. [25582]
§ The Minister for Women (Ms Patricia Hewitt)The women and equality unit, my hon. Friend the Minister for Employment and the Regions and I have raised this issue directly with the chairs of the regional development agencies. They are currently discussing the best way in which RDAs can support child care provision.
§ Caroline FlintI thank my right hon. Friend for her answer. In my constituency, there is a very large brownfield site at the old RAF Finningley that we hope will become a regional airport. Tomorrow, I shall visit the Flying Start day nursery, which provides child care resources for employees of the 35 companies that are based there already. However, neither the RDA nor objective 1 status has helped the child care situation, and guidance is needed in two ways. First, where there is funding for facilitating or creating employment, the people who oversee that funding must recognise that child care is an important element. Secondly, deprived communities often benefit from community-based funding, and although a brownfield site may not be situated in a deprived community, it may provide employment opportunities for people from those communities. Does my right hon. Friend therefore agree that more lateral thinking and creativity are needed in those respects?
§ Ms HewittI pay tribute to my hon. Friend's expertise in this matter, and to her work in founding the all-party parliamentary group on child care. She makes an enormously important point whose relevance goes beyond her constituency. I want RDAs, councils and business partnerships to understand, when they plan new business sites, that providing for child care is as important as getting the transport links right. I shall draw to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Skills the specific matter of funding for child care in disadvantaged communities.
§ Mrs. Caroline Spelman (Meriden)May I first welcome the fact that the Government have devoted parliamentary time specifically to questions on women's issues? When I attended the induction programme for child minders in the Solihull borough, I was struck by the fact that the application pack that had to be filled in comprised six booklets. That deters many people from applying. Along with the demise of play groups under 427 Labour, that has led to the fall in the number of child care places in many deprived areas. Does the Minister accept the need for more support and encouragement for community child-minding groups? They are crucial to the expansion of child care in such areas.
§ Ms HewittI echo the hon. Lady's welcome for the introduction of this question session. If it is not exactly "Woman's Hour", it is at least women's 10 minutes. I also want to thank my right hon. Friend the Chief Whip, who ensured that this innovation happened.
The hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) is right that community child-minding groups are enormously important. The Department's social enterprise unit, which I created, can help to promote them, as can the early-year child care partnerships that we have created around the country. However, I also point out that we have created new child care places already for more than three quarters of a million children. I hope that the hon. Lady will recognise that achievement and support us as we build on it.