11 November 2005
Local government leaders have welcomed their new responsibility to ensure there is sufficient childcare to meet the needs of working families - but warned that it needs to be backed up with adequate resources.
Commenting on the publication of the Childcare Bill on November 8, Alison King, chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, said affordable childcare for all would be attained only if the government provided significant extra funds.
'To be on track to meet the government's ambitions means investing £200m in the next two years over and above existing resources,' King said. 'If the government can't find this money, the cost will be borne either by parents or council tax payers.'
But parent groups criticised other aspects of the Bill, particularly 'bizarre' proposals to introduce a standardised learning 'curriculum' for pre-school children.
Children's minister Beverley Hughes hailed the Bill as radical, saying it brought early years care and education 'into the mainstream of the modern welfare state'.
PFnov2005
