Live online chat with The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP, Minister for Children, on Thursday 24th May 1-2pm

[carriemumsnet]

Hi all

Ok this is your chance to have your say about what, in an ideal world, you'd like to happen to childcare, nurseries and pre-schools (as well as debate what's happening in the sometimes non ideal world). The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes, Minister for Children and mum of three, will be joining us for a lunchtime chat on Thursday 24th May, so bring your sarnies, get your questions ready and join us then. For those of you who have unavoidable lunchtime commitments (and letters from your mum to prove it) we'll let you post your questions in advance here. For the rest of you, we'll see you on the 24th.

Beverley - the tax credits system sounds like a fantastic solution - if only it worked properly.

Myself and many other Mumsnetters here are currently suffering financial hardship due to 'cock-ups' with the tax credits system that caused overpayments through no fault of our own. What action has been taken to assist these people - because from where I am sitting - I'm not getting any help at all - from tax credits - or resolution to the overpayment problem?

VeniVidiVickiQV, I?m very clear that?s parents that bring up children, it?s their responsibility and I don?t want anything to erode that. I want parents to have the confidence to do that. But the fact is that the vast majority of parents that we talk to say that they want a wide range of advice, information and sometimes support for the times when they need it, so that they can dip in and out and get sound advice. This is quite a hotly contested area and I think that it?s sometimes hard for parents to know what kind of advice they can trust. That is what I think Government should be doing, enabling parents as best we can to make the right choices for themselves. So we are funding helplines such as Parentline Plus that gives independent and specialist advice. We are also helping local authorities to provide information, advice and ? where necessary ? support programmes. And health visitors and trusted professionals are also useful sources of help and advice for parents.

Hunkermunker asked about the UNICEF report. We want to ensure that every child has the best start in life and an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential, both in childhood and later life. And we particularly want to help the most vulnerable children to have better prospects.

I take reports from organisations like UNICEF very seriously, but do not accept their latest publication because it does not take into account the substantial progress we have made in a number of areas. The data it used is very old, and by its own admission the report does not look at early years and childcare, an area where we have achieved so much ? through early education for all 3 and 4 year olds, a huge increase in childcare, and now steadily growing numbers of children?s centres and extended schools.

Other recent reports have documented the improvements in children?s wellbeing. Though we have much further to go, we have made clear progress, for example in lifting 600,000 children out of poverty (the UK had the highest rate in the EU in 1997 but is now improving fastest), establishing early education as an entitlement for all 3 and 4 year olds, completely reforming children?s services and children now achieving the best GCSE pass rates every recorded.

I would like to know what the government can do for parents who are bullied by their teenage children. As the law stands the children have all the rights and parents bear all the responsibility for them.

If a teenager bullies their parent the parent has no right to restrain them physically or to lock them in. Teenagers can go completely wild if they so desire, they can steal, bring drugs into the house, skip school, trash the parents' house, and use physical force against other members of the family. The law holds the parents responsible for every offence yet gives the parents no rights to enforce discipline on a child. A child of 13 or over can tell you where they want to live, even, and the law will back the child and not the responsible parent.

Surely something has to change? We are breeding a generation of selfish, demanding and lazy teenagers and seemingly we are not able to do anything about it.

Beverley - Health Visitors absolutely should be the first line of support for mothers, but, it is clear from many hundreds of threads on Mumsnet that the knowledge (of up to date Government recommendations and WHO guidelines) of Health Visitors is sorely lacking.

Are there any schemes in place to retrain or refresh the knowledge of Health Visitors?

I'd like to back up VVVQV - HVs seem to talk rubbish 90% of the time, from breastfeeding advice through to advice on how to get your 6 year old to eat. I DEFINITELY think they should have an annual refresher course on breast feeding!

'the best GCSE pass rates ever recorded'

But that's due to the dumbing down of subject matter surely Beverley? For example, combining the sciences?

Twinklemegan and Wrinklytum, your local authorities need to hear about your concerns. They have a responsibility to ensure there is enough childcare in your area - knowing what you want and need is really important. There's been huge growth in childcare places since 1997 - but we want to make sure that it's the right kind of provision. Try calling your local childcare information service - the number will be on your council's website.

Having a supportive employer is so important. We've worked hard on this: giving employers tax incentives to subsidise childcare and giving parents new rights to request flexible working. I'm sorry to hear that you've been made to feel 'unreasonable' - we need to change that culture. Four out of five requests made under the new law have been successful - so we need to keep on demanding flexible working to make it a reality for more parents.

But childcare also needs to be affordable and flexible - we're putting money directly into building workplace nurseries for small and medium companies to help them help parents as well as giving financial support to parents like you who need to balance work and home life. You might want to look into what tax credits you can get to help with your childcare costs - try calling the HMRC helpline on 08453003900 or have a look at the website taxcredits.direct.gov.uk/. And workplace nurseries can also offer the free entitlement when your child turns 3.

The Goverment ploughing more money into various schemes such as Parent Plus, isnt as easy as a parent popping into a shop and buying a book, or watching someone on a TV programme.

Do you not think that parenting 'experts' that advise putting a baby in their own room from birth for the sake of routine/sleep (which is the opposite advice from FSIDS with regard to helping prevent cot death), should be held accountable to someone? They are directly contradicting Government and NHS advice/recommendations. Does this not concern you?

Given that the Government support "breast is best", what do you think of making refresher breastfeeding training and counselling skills training mandatory for all midwives and health visitors?

By hunkermunker on Thu 17-May-07 23:31:26
Do you boycott Nestle products?

i need to back up VVVQV on that one too, HVs don't seem to follow their own guidelines in a lot of cases, and don't seem to be under any obligation to refresh their learning. how can this be?

Beverley, how much time have you spent reading Mumsnet? Because in all seriousness... all your answers are here, all the information you need to do a good job is typed out by us every day.

Suzycreamcheese is right that it is really important that all children can communicate well in English. That?s why our new framework, the Early Years Foundation Stage, requires providers to have basic competence in English and to be able to support children to develop their English, even if they are in a home language setting chosen by their parents.

The Government is committed to raising the achievement of minority ethnic pupils and those for whom English is an additional language. The aim is to ensure, over time, their participation and achievement matches that of the population as a whole.

The Department for Education and Skills launched a strategy for English as an additional language (EAL) in October as part of its Aiming High strategy for raising achievement of minority ethnic pupils. Central to this strategy was the professional development of teachers and teaching assistants, and we?re publishing special guidance on this shortly.

Why is it so difficult for Childminders who move between Scotland and England and vise versa to get registered. I have been a CM for 4 years in Scotland. Due to my husband being in the Armed Forces we have to move to England, and I have to go through the whole procedure FROM SCRATCH, courses, CRB checks everything and therefore I will have to wait a minimum of 3 months before being able to work.
Why can't it made easier, after all we are all part of the UK.

That's better - can't be a trucker on this thread.

Beverley, over 80% of women who stop breastfeeding in the first six weeks of their baby's life regret doing so.

However, the support isn't there for them to continue.

What are the Government doing to help them?

beverley, what are you like as a mum? as a person? did you breastfeed?

And are you boycotting Nestle....?

Milupa, Cow & Gate and other infant formula manufacturers have "breastfeeding helplines" and advertise them heavily to pregnant women and new mums.

Given that formula manufacturers have NO interest in helping women to breastfeed, shouldn't this sort of disingenuous promotion be illegal?

let her SPEAK FGS

nothing earnest to add so leaves threa

Mirage I'm glad you raised this. Flexibility of the free entitlement is really important in making it work for parents and making sure that all children get the full benefit of the £3bn we are investing every year in this crucial provision. I want flexibility to increase (for example so that parents like you can take up all of your free 12 and a half hours over three days) This does pose some issues for providers, so we've got 20 local authorities are working with their providers and parents, funded by my Department, to work out how best to provide that flexibility. Once we've learnt from them I will be expecting all local authorities to follow suit (as well as extending the free hours to 15 per week). We've got to get the balance right for children and helping you make choices about working. I suggest you contact your children's information service (08002346346) about whether there are more flexible options available or whether you get financial support for additional costs.

Cammelia, there is no such thing as an easy GCSE - they all have strict standards set by independent awarding bodies and monitored by the equally independent qualifications and curriculum authority. Maybe we should give our young people a bit more credit!

Oh yes, backing up VVVQV again, should there be some sort of controls over parenting advice, or at least a requirement to print the accepted advice as a matter of course - so if a parenting 'expert' wanted to advise putting a baby to sleep in its own room for routine, the book should be required to print that 'the accepted advice from FSIDs is that a baby should sleep in the same room as its mum for the first 6 months'.

Flexibility of childcare full stop if really important as well Beverley, although I have to say I don't know how it could be achieved other than with many many more places. By way of an example, before we had DS my husband did contracting work which involved working away from home, but this was variable and not every week. For him to continue working we would have to pay for full time childcare every week, whether we need it or not. This would eat up all his earnings, probably more, therefore he is a SAHD and we are struggling financially - a lot.

Why is there not more funding put into supporting women to initiate and keep breastfeeding, when if more women did, there would be fewer hospital admissions for babies and a healthier adult population, long-term? (lower rates of heart disease, risk of Type 2 diabetes, etc, etc if you are exclusively breastfed)

It seems financially shortsighted not to invest in breastfeeding support.