A bill intended to make provision about support for infants, parents, carers of infants, and prospective parents and carers has passed its second reading and will move onto committee stage.
The Infants, Parents and Carers Bill (also known as ‘the Babies Bill’) focuses on support during pregnancy and the 1,001 days of a child’s life, including provision relating to assessment of needs.
The Private Member’s Bill, presented by Conservative MP for New Forest West, Sir Desmond Swayne, passed through its second reading in the House of Commons on the 4th September without opposition.
If passed, it would require the government to regularly assess the need for infant support services in England as well as to work to ensure an appropriate level of provision.
It includes a duty for the secretary of state to report to Parliament annually on the provision of those services and the outcomes that arise from them.
Speaking to the House of Commons, Swayne said: “This Bill responds to the widely held view that services for infants, prospective parents and parents of young children are somewhat vulnerable when they rely largely on non-statutory guidance and programme funding.
“The purpose of the Bill is to shine the legislative spotlight on those services and to ensure that they are systematically understood and are known about and scrutinised by Parliament.”
“It is a truism that if we want a better future, we need to start with the provision of services to babies today. It is vital that those services are available in that critical period of 1,001 days from pregnancy through to two years old.
“If children are confident that they are safe and if they are responded to properly by adults, they will build relationships, they will be healthy, they will have language development and their future learning will be assured. That is vital.
“It is vital that we make that impact in those early weeks, months and years when one million neural networks are being formed every second and the baby’s brain grows to 80% of the weight of an adult’s brain by two years old.
“If those services are not available, and if problems arise and are not addressed, there will be problems with speech, problems with relationships and problems with development later, so it is vital that they are there.”
The date of the committee stage of the Bill is yet to be announced. It still has to pass through the report stage and a third reading in the House of Commons before it can be debated in the Lords.
