There the drive to get lone parents off welfare has been run in conjunction with more childcare provision

There, the drive to get lone parents off welfare has been run in conjunction with more childcare provision.The President announced last month that $20bn (pounds 12.5bn) would be spent over the next five years on childcare to help working families pay for care, to build after-school programmes and to emphasis quality of care through research and monitoring. In recent years, two- year-olds have also been admitted and the handful of ecoles maternelles that are run privately receive state subsidies.Alternatively, French families can employ an assistante maternelle, or childminder. They receive financial support in the form of a grant and a payment to cover social security contributions.For schoolchildren up to 17 years there are recreation centres, Centre de Loisirs sans Hebergement, that provide care from 8am to 6pm or 7pm. These come under the ministry for youth and sport at a local level and are sometimes subsidised by private companies.Scandinavia has long been seen as a symbol of child-friendly policies. In Sweden, public funds meet the costs of day care for 72 per cent of three to six-year-olds (compulsory schooling does not start until seven).Parents are provided with daghem – day-care centres, typically open between 6am and 6.30pm – and those who want to stay at home to look after their children qualify for payment by the state of 360 days on 90 per cent of their previous income, plus an additional 90 days on a flat daily rate of SKr60 (about pounds 6).Other services include Sexarsverksamhet, pre-primary schooling for children and Fritidshem, centres providing care and recreation for school-age children up to 12 years.The United States is one of the countries Britain is watching most closely after President Bill Clinton’s State of the Union address last month. In France, childcare is heavily subsidised and there is a long tradition of early childhood education in the public sector.After creches for children up to three years old, the state makes universal educational provision for children aged three to school-entry age at ecoles maternelles, which are provided to help parents in employment but also to help the child develop.These state-funded institutions are an accepted way of life for children and 35 per cent of three- to six-year olds attend.

We feel that there are lessons to be learned from other countries and with 1.1 million women expected to enter the workforce by 2006, unless something is done about childcare we face serious problems. In Europe only Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland have lower employment rates.This week ,The Independent launched its campaign for a tax allowance for working mothers, urging the Chancellor to invest in the nation’s children.Parents in Britain pay a higher percentage of the cost of childcare than in virtually any other advanced economy. Comparing Britain with three other countries shows that greater state involvement in caring for children has a twofold purpose: to encourage parents into employment and to help children to develop.
Only 41 per cent of lone mothers in Britain are employed, compared with 82 per cent in France, and 70 per cent in Sweden. It is not surprising his colleagues are getting fed up with it all He has already had a carpeting and now he is on the canvas.

Is it going to be curtains for Lord Irvine?”The Downing Street spokesman said the Lord Chancellor’s department was working out access arrangements with House of Lords authorities, though these might take the form of organised access for groups. BRITAIN has little statutory childcare provision and little help with childcare for mothers. Usually the limited number of public childcare places available are used for children deemed to be “at risk”. However, the intention was to secure “significant public access”.. The galleries are extremely happy they will in due course be on display in the Lord Chancellor’s residence which is going to be open to the public.”But that failed to impress the Scottish National Party leader, Alex Salmond, who said: “Derry Irvine is displaying a breathtaking arrogance which is entirely in character. His looting and pillaging of Scottish art works will cause great anger both in the artist and academic worlds.”Taking them down to Derry Irvine’s house in London is nothing to do with access but everything to do with self aggrandisement.”Francis Maude, the Tory spokesman on culture, said: “Power has gone to his head Not to mention his furniture. “One newspaper said they had been removed; it gave the impression they are being taken away They have come from their reserve collections In other words, they are all in cellars They are not on display None of them is on a wall anywhere.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said there were no plans to charge the public for touring the Lord Chancellor’s rooms, although the continuing controversy over the pounds 650,000 refurbishment must make them one of the top tourist attractions in the capital.
His latest acquisitions of paintings from four galleries – the Royal Academy, the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the Imperial War Museum, and the National Gallery of Scotland – are likely to enhance interest in the most controversial interior redesign in London, in spite of the works being dismissed by Downing Street as “not of the top rank”.The spokesman for Tony Blaire denied reports that the artwork which will adorn the walls, themselves to be covered in expensive wallpaper, has been “looted” from Scottish galleries. The upshot of it is out of 116 barristers acting for the Government in civil proceedings only 13 are women … a very small proportion of the women in practice where 28 per cent of barristers are women.”Unless the system is transparent there can be no confidence that gender is not a criteria for appointments.”She added. “Sex is an issue because the lists are so predominately male.”However, the Attorney General yesterday rejected Ms Hayes’s claim. A statement from his office said: “The Attorney General rejects any suggestion of discrimination and will strongly oppose this application.”The tribunal is expected to have a hearing within the next three or four months..

Public tours of Lord Irvine of Lairg’s lavish grace and favour apartment at the House of Lords could be started in April, Downing Street said yesterday as the Government fought to damp down the latest controversy over the Lord Chancellor’s loan of over 80 paintings for the walls of his rooms. She is a junior counsel who has been in civil practice for 16 years and is also chairwoman of the Association of Women Barristers.Ms Leslie said the appointment of lawyers to the lists was known within the profession as the “secret soundings”.She added: “We understand the Attorney-General makes appointments taking the views of the Treasury Solicitor, government departments, members of the judiciary and senior members of the Bar – what is known as `secret soundings’.”Applicants are restricted to barristers these particular people happen to know. She is suing on the grounds that the Government shows bias in favour of men when appointing lawyers to represent it in civil cases.Ms Hayes’s lawyer, Sara Leslie of Irwin Mitchell in London, said her client is taking action over appointments to four lists of lawyers used to represent the Government.Ms Leslie says the names on three of the lists are exclusively male. On the fourth there are 13 women out of 71 names, but this list is known as the supplementary list and deals with more routine and minor cases.”What Josephine Hayes claims is that she is an excellent candidate for one of these jobs but has never been given the opportunity to be considered or apply.