Mrs Hodge invited a cross-section of the childcare workforce to her office in Westminster to discuss issues surrounding sustainability, funding and the relationship between the private and public childcare sector.
She said, 'As we improve quality and quantity, some of the lower-quality stuff will fall by the wayside. That's what we're experiencing - and I don't apologise for that, because we want the best start for our children.'
Mrs Hodge also confirmed that revenue funding for children's centres would continue 'forever' and that the 30 per cent most deprived areas would benefit from 'very generous' funding.
She said, 'All those worries that I've heard up and down the country that we would be capping it - it's just not true.'
She said a new transformation fund, worth 125m a year, will start in April 2006 to 'help drive up qualifications and quality' in the voluntary and private sector. The fund would target private providers, pre-schools and childminders because 'there's a big quality challenge' in these areas.
Director of Trojans out-of-school clubs, Jackie Nunns, said there is 'no longer an adequate sum of money for training' since the pot of money is shared between the statutory sector, private nurseries and the big play services.
But Mrs Hodge said the Government will be placing tighter controls on local authorities to ensure that non-ring-fenced money for training - currently 30m - is spent appropriately.
Extended schools came under fire from childminder Sue Johnson, who said headteachers often 'failed to take on board provision that's already out there'. She said, 'Childminders are getting more anxious that they will lose work because they have to compete with the subsidies of the out-of-school clubs.'
But Mrs Hodge said that she intends to keep the voluntary and private sector as 'very strong providers' in the extended schools initiative.
The validity of quality assurance schemes was raised by Shirley Paddock, manager of Bright Horizon's Foreign and Commonwealth Office nursery. She said that if the schemes were now 'worth nothing' it was demoralising for staff who have worked hard to achieve them.
Mrs Hodge said, 'There's something really good about self-evaluation and drive that QA provides - and we don't want to lose that.' She said that she is due to meet with Ofsted and the people responsible for the QA programmes to 'see if we can't try to find a way through this'.
The round-table event was chaired by Liz Roberts, editor of Nursery World.
Also present were Maria Freeman, Westminster Children's Society; Martin Pace, director of Dolphin Nurseries; Pippa Ala- baster, Newham Sure Start; Jennifer Hayes, Hurley Pre-School; Michelle Austin, teaching assistant tutor, Hertford Regional College; and Louise Kirk, Professional Nanny of the Year.
