MPs rebel over plans to let carers hit children

Labour backbenchers are set to defy the Government by demanding a ban on childminders smacking children.

Labour backbenchers are set to defy the Government by demanding a ban on childminders smacking children.

Members of the Commons Select Committee on Education and Employment will declare in a report to be published next month that childminders should never be allowed to smack a child in their care.

Two weeks ago, ministers infuriated childcare campaigners by announcing new guidelines allowing childminders to smack children and to smoke in front of them if their parents agree.

The committee, chaired by Barry Sheerman, Labour MP for Huddersfield, will also recommend in the report on education in the early years that childminders should not be allowed to smoke in front of children in their care.

Ministers recently released a survey showing that 83 per cent of parents believe they should be allowed to decide whether a carer hits a child.

But last week, Margaret Hodge, the minister responsible for early years education, was heckled when she told a conference of childcarers that the Government would go ahead with the guidelines. Smacking will be banned in nursery schools, nurseries, creches, after-school clubs and playgroups.

The committee decided, however, that smacking by childminders was totally unacceptable. They were impressed by arguments put forward by the National Childminding Association that children's physical security must come first, especially in cases where the carer is working alone. MPs accepted the view of many experts that children under two should never be smacked.

On both smacking and smoking, they decided the guidelines, first published in June this year, did not go far enough. The committee examined research suggesting that cot deaths are more prevalent in households where children are exposed to tobacco smoke.

Gill Haynes, chief executive of the National Childminding Association, said: "I am really encouraged to hear the select committee is going to come out with some strong recommendations ... Regulation is about the protection of children. You cannot put to the vote whether children should have minimum protection in the eyes of the law.

"It is scandalous that the Government has ignored the views of most of the 6,000 people who responded to their consultation," she said.

Since the Government's announcement, she added, she had received many letters from childminders distressed at the prospect of parents asking them to smack children. One was from a childminder who had herself been beaten by her mother, who was a teacher.

Stephen Burke, director of the Daycare Trust, welcomed the MPs' support: "We shall be meeting ministers to try to persuade them to change their minds. We believe this a very important issue both in terms of children's rights and of the quality of child care."

Ministers argue they are trying to strike a balance between the freedom of parents to decide how childminders care for their children and the views of childcare groups.

In some parts of the country, childminders are caring for children for longer than any other group of carers. Research from the Thomas Coram Institute in London shows they are increasingly being used by middle-class families where both parents are working.