The Government's investment in childcare, Children's Centres and Sure Start is very welcome, and I am delighted to see commitment from the Treasury to fund more childcare services. In the UK we have started from such a very low base in terms of provision for childcare and early years education.
Current progress is good, but there is still a lot to do.
The Liberal Democrats have always placed significant emphasis on the importance of investment in early years, as we see this as the most critical stage of a child's development.
The Liberal Democrats believe that the Government was wrong to introduce Child Trust Funds, not because we don't believe that families need incentives to save for the future, but because we believe that such vast amounts of money, estimated at about 1.2 billion over the course of a Parliament, could be better spent to improve early years support. For us, this means reducing class sizes for the youngest children and setting up more early years centres to provide better health, education, social services and family support for every child.
A significant feature of our childcare policy is an emphasis on the need to raise quality by having more qualified nursery assistants and childminders.
Young children are as much in need of contact with trained teachers as older children, and they benefit just as much from such contact.
As a Liberal Democrat I believe in the principle of equality of parenting responsibilities, where it is safe to do so, but I strongly believe that the needs of the child should come first. This may mean that it is not always in the child's interests to split access equally between both parents if the stability and security of the child's home and school life might be compromised. I welcome the Government's consultation on parental separation and its proposals to introduce more mediation between parents.
