Harriett Baldwin welcomes proposals to bring down the cost of child care for hard-working families and backs allowing additional flexibility for childminders. Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con): I am so pleased that the Minister is looking at ways to bring down the cost of child care for hard-working families. In her consultation, did she hear from the childminder who has four children who stay until 1 o’clock but who, because of these very inflexible regulations, has to say no to the parent who wants to drop off an additional child at 12.30? Elizabeth Truss: My hon. Friend makes a very good point. Many childminders—I recently held a round table meeting with them—told me that they welcome the additional flexibility that they will have under our rules. They also welcome the increased level of trust that we are placing in child care professionals. Rather than dictating from Whitehall what they should be doing, we have a strong inspection regime, we are recruiting new Her Majesty’s inspectors into the sector and we are giving more professional responsibility to people on the ground. | Hansard