6. Debate on the General Principles of the Childcare Funding (Wales) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:30 pm on 18 September 2018.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 5:30, 18 September 2018

Thank you very much. If I could turn to the comments about parents and education and training, I'm very aware of and very sympathetic to the challenges all parents face in accessing affordable childcare when they need it, but this offer is aimed at the working parents of three and four-year-olds. And, actually, colleagues around the Chamber, if they go back and look, with one exception, at the manifesto's offers—they were not, in some ways, dissimilar; they cover the same ground: three and four-year-olds, limited hours et cetera. Now, Welsh Ministers, I have to say, do have the powers to bring forward additional programmes of support, as required, subject, again, to the relevant funding being available.

Now, I do appreciate, however, that the different support available may be confusing for people to understand and I have commissioned a piece of internal work to look at this further and to look at options to reduce confusion and reduce complexity. So, the sort of work Helen Mary and Llyr were talking about—we're on the case with that; we're looking at how we resolve these issues and bring together a more cohesive system, but it's different from this Bill and the delivery mechanism of the HMRC.

Dirprwy Lywydd, are you looking at me asking me to—? You want me to wind up.