The Government's drive to provide families with affordable, good-quality childcare has resulted in a dramatic rise in state spending on early years provision and an unprecedented expansion of the childcare sector.
According to Choice for Parents, the Best Start for Children - a ten-year strategy for children, Government expenditure on childcare, early years education and Sure Start has trebled since 1997.
The latest quarterly figures from Ofsted, to December 2005, show yet another rise in the number of providers for daycare, sessional care and childminding (up from 106,500 to 107,200) and places (up from 1,509,600 to 1,522,500). The number of full-day care providers now stands at 12,900.
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