Nursery World - Affordable childcare must be priority to end child poverty, says Alan Milburn

The Government should invest in early years services to help fight child poverty, the Government's independent reviewer on social mobility said in a speech yesterday.

Giving his first keynote speech at a Children’s Society event, Mr Milburn said that the Government should spend more money on early years services for families, rather than on benefits.

He called for high-quality childcare and early years services to be the ‘foundation stone of a new approach to child poverty’.

Mr Milburn argued that the UK ‘significantly under-invests in childcare’, spending on average 0.5 per cent of GDP on childcare costs, compared to two per cent in Sweden and Denmark.

However, he said that OECD research showed that child poverty is lowest and social mobility highest in countries where parents have high quality, affordable childcare.

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