Mr Hilditch:. Once again, the Committee for Social Development is sitting this afternoon to discuss a number of issues.

Like most Members, I have been contacted, through my constituency office, by several parents whose sons and daughters have been unable to secure nursery school placements in their area because of the criteria being set by the boards.

I do not want to get into more figures, because all sorts of mileages have been mentioned. However, the North Eastern Education and Library Board advised one lady from Newtownabbey, whose daughter was refused entry to her local nursery schools at Whitehouse Primary School and King’s Park Primary School, to contact Carnlough Community Nursery, Harryville Nursery in Ballymena or a nursery school in Ballycastle to see whether they had places available. That was absolutely ludicrous, because it would be totally impractical for that lady to send her daughter to any of those nurseries. Ballycastle is 50 miles away from Newtownabbey, so that would have meant a daily 100-mile round trip without public transport.

The decisions on this matter are along the same lines as the recent decisions on health cuts, which have been taken without consideration of how people will get to certain places. It is unreasonable that children who live down the road from that lady have been accepted into local nurseries, and sometimes it is down to the fact that parents are on benefits and so on.

Due to a rise in the birth rate, we now have an unprecedented nursery-place shortage of around 1,200. However, the news that the Minister has released £1·3 million for private and voluntary nursery-school placements is welcome. That will no doubt help to meet the shortage, perhaps totally so in some cases, and ensure that, where possible, every child will be placed for the forthcoming school year. However, like the National Association of Head Teachers, I am concerned that the funding does not cover the state sector as such and that it will not include the provision of any new places in nursery schools and nursery units.

Children who attend nursery school benefit in so many different ways. The preschool experience enhances the social development of all children, and disadvantaged children gain so much more when they are with children from different social backgrounds. Children with little or no preschool experience show poorer cognitive, social and behavioural outcomes at entry to school and at the end of year one than those who attended preschool.

If high quality preschool education provision has such a positive effect on children’s intellectual and social development, why is every child not entitled to a funded nursery school placement? I urge the Minister to provide that basic opportunity for every child. It is totally unacceptable and unfair that all children do not get the same funding to help them to start their educational lives. If we do not provide funded nursery places for all children, we will probably undermine the benefits of taxpayers’ investments in later stages of the formal schools system.

We appreciate the success in increasing the supply of preschool education over an 11-year period, and it is well noted that uptake has increased from 44% to 90%. However, there are geographical gaps in supply and demand. Parental choice contributes to the amount of places that are available, and there are some nurseries to which parents just do not want to send their children. Indeed, parental choice has led to some of the popular state nurseries being oversubscribed by up to 30 places, so why does the Minister not pour the £1·3 million into accommodating that sector? Those are issues that hinder our children’s development, and they need to be addressed.

Every child has the right to develop through educational and social activity and to learn through play in the preschool environment so that they can progress into primary 1. I appeal to the Minister for her and the Department to ensure that every child is well equipped to meet the needs of primary school foundation stage and years one and two by the time that they leave preschool. I look forward to her response. I support the motion