Children's secretary Ed Balls' confident claim to be creating a 'new frontier of the welfare state' as he outlined Labour's ambitions for childcare in a policy insight paper, published by the Daycare Trust, was already crumbling when it was launched last week.
The Government's 2008 Pre-Budget Report prompted the Conservatives to question whether spending cuts had halted Labour's pledge to provide free early learning for all two-year-olds. The Pre-Budget Report also appeared to back down from the Government's goal of extending free childcare provision for three- and four-year-olds to 20 hours a week (see News, page 4).
In the paper, Childcare futures, Mr Balls states that there has been significant progress in the early years during the four years since the Ten-Year Childcare Strategy was published, and reveals that the Government will publish a 'refreshed' ten-year strategy later this month. This document is to particularly focus on ensuring childcare provision is of high quality.
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