§ Mr. BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what provision her Department makes for child care facilities for staff; what subsidy is provided for(a) nursery places and (b) holiday play schemes; if she 344W will list the organisations used by her Department for child care; and if child care vouchers are made available to staff. [30005]
§ Mr. Field[holding answer 19 February 1998]: The Department and Agencies provide nursery places and holiday play schemes places for staff at a wide range of geographic locations. All nursery places and the majority of holiday play scheme places have a subsidy ranging from 30 to 50 per cent. There are over 600 nursery places across 34 nurseries and over 1,600 places across 56 Holiday Play Schemes. The names of all nursery providers are as listed. The names of the providers of Holiday Play Schemes are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Child care vouchers are not currently available to staff.
The Department recognises that a whole series of measures are needed to enable staff to balance home and work responsibilities. Other child care initiatives include meeting family care expenses while staff are required to be at work outside normal working hours; sponsoring after school clubs; membership of child care information referral services; provision of a creche for the Department's summer school; special paid or unpaid leave to working parents to cover illness or break down of care arrangements; career breaks of up to five years for staff with caring responsibilities with a guarantee of a job on return. We also provide training courses on balancing home and work. A variety of working patterns are also available.
- Departmental Nursery Providers
- Acorn Nurseries
- Beehive
- Bonnie Babies
- Bradford Community Creche
- Brookhill Childcare Centre
- Chics Nursery
- Childcare Enterprises Limited
- Childcare North Tyneside
- Kinderquest
- Kidsun Limited
- Lilliput Day Nursery
- Makefield Private Nursery
- North Cheshire Local Authority
- North Lindsey College
- Park Lane College
- Primetime
- Secret Garden
- Thomas Chipsey Day Nursery/Northampton School for Boys
- Cygnets Nursery.
§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will make a statement on her Department's child care strategy. [31067]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Government are committed to a National Child Care Strategy which will provide high quality, affordable and accessible child care. A consultation paper will be issued in the Spring.