Membership organisations the National Day Nurseries Association and the Pre-school Learning Alliance, which also runs 120 settings, told peers of the challenges faced by the childcare sector.
The committee's inquiry is focusing on the affordability of childcare for pre-school children, from birth to five.
Asked what role the state should play in the childcare market, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance said, ‘The primary objective of the state should be to ensure it’s adequately funded and what’s right for the child.’
He was concerned, he said, that the sector was ‘being led down a path dictated by economics.’
Both stressed the serious under-funding of the funded early education places for two-, three- and four-year-olds.
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