Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said that the plan for educare 'left many questions to be answered on how it will work in practice'.
She said, 'With the nursery education grant being eroded, it is vital that we have a robust funding mechanism that reflects the true cost of high-quality provision. We must not end up with more childcare on the cheap, subsidised by the inevitable acceptance of low wages.'
Stephen Burke, director of the Daycare Trust, said, 'By allowing families to use their early education places for three- and four-year-olds in ways which best suit their needs, more parents will be able to work, lifting families out of poverty and giving children a good start in life.'
But the Social Market Foundation warned that the Government's tactic of subsidising child- care through tax credits for parents 'will never create an affordable solution for low-income families, and creates major dis-incentives to work'. Lead researcher Vidhya Alakeson said there was inadequate funding for children's centres and the priority should be investment in the supply of high-quality childcare places.
Anne Longfield, chief executive of the charity 4Children, said current investment would 'provide the building blocks to developing childcare and wider children's services', but called on the Government to double it.
There was a consensus of support for the pledge to look at ways of extending support to mothers and fathers during the first year of a child's life.
Maternity Alliance director Liz Kendall said that although the Government had not opted to increase maternity pay and leave, she was confident the issue was firmly on the political agenda.
'To give parents genuine choice you must combine better- paid maternity leave with strengthened rights to flexible work and good-quality childcare.
This is the challenge for all the political parties,' she added.
