Party leaders and leading politicians, among them Chancellor Gordon Brown, have been keen to be photographed in nurseries and around children as the general election approaches, each of them trying very hard in the run-up to 5 May to convince the electorate that his party has the most family-friendly policies.
Until recently that phrase covered issues such as tax, child benefit, schools or home ownership, but not childcare. How parents coped with working and looking after their children in the pre-school years just did not register on the political radar. No longer.
The early years sector has become an election issue in its own right.
Admittedly, it is not a player in the premier league of political issues such as the economy, health, education, law and order, but it does feature.
Here we look at what early years and childcare policies the three major parties are proposing to prove their family-friendly credentials.
Maternity pay
L Labour plans to extend maternity leave to nine months by April 2007, with a goal of moving to a full year's leave by the end of the next Parliament.
Over the same time scale, mothers will be given the right to transfer a proportion of their maternity pay and leave to the father. It also aims to simplify the system for employers.
C The Conservatives want to increase maternity pay by 1,400 and allow mothers the choice of extending their period of paid maternity leave to nine months or of concentrating the increase over a six-month period.
LD The Liberal Democrats are offering new mothers a Maternity Income Guarantee, equivalent to the minimum wage of 170 per week for the first six months after the birth of their first child. It would be transferable between the mother and father.
Childcare support
L Labour believes work is the best anti-poverty strategy. It is committed to halving child poverty by 2010/11 and ultimately to ending it, and wants to make work pay by offering a guaranteed income of at least 258 a week for parents with children and in full-time work. The Child Tax Credit will be increased in line with earnings at least up to and including 2007/08. It also plans to increase the maximum proportion of childcare costs parents can claim under the childcare element of Working Tax Credit next year from 70 per cent to 80 per cent. Parents using home-based care, such as a nanny or au pair, are now able to claim.
C The Conservatives plan, during the next Parliament, to provide 50 a week to all families qualifying for working tax credits for each child under the age of five to help parents with their childcare costs, regardless of what type of childcare they use. They says this should benefit an extra 250,000 parents who currently use informal care.
Childminders
L Labour proposes that childminders and other home-based childcarers will be able to access professional support and continuous professional development through Sure Start children's centres. A new childcare partners model will be introduced, building on both childminder networks and associate models, enabling childminders and approved childcarers to become partners with local centre-based providers, offering places on their behalf.
C The Conservatives say that as long as a grandparent is looking after a minimum of two other children, who are not family members, he or she will be eligible for childminder grants, credits and other relevant benefits.
Mothers and fathers, working as registered childminders, and caring for at least two children who are not their own, will be able to claim the new simplified Flexible Childcare payment. (See 'childcare support' above).
LD The Liberal Democrats want to encourage greater use of childminders, 'who can offer more flexibility for meeting parents' needs than other provisions at fixed hours of the day'.
Early years workforce
L Labour plans a 'radical reform of the workforce' based on the consultation currently being conducted by the Children's Workforce Development Council on a new qualification and career structure. Their aim is for all full-day care settings to be professionally led.
C The Conservatives plan to set up childcare courses for grandparents so they can 'refresh their knowledge, update their skills and meet the modern standards required in childcare'.
LD The Liberal Democrats want to create a 'children's profession' of early years workers and would establish a new qualification of Qualified Early Years Teacher, at the level of current teaching qualifications. A new professional body for early years workers would have the power to strike off the register any staff who break its code of conduct.
Nursery education
L Labour aims by 2010 to provide 15 hours of free nursery education every week for the whole school year to all three- and four-year-olds. Over the longer term it will increase free provision to 20 hours.
LD The Liberal Democrats want to offer all three- and four-year-olds four hours a day of nursery education for 38 weeks a year and increase the flexibility for parents to use these hours.
Children's centres
L Labour will continue to roll out its ten-year childcare strategy, and by 2010 it pledges to create 3,500 Sure Start children's centres for under-fives - five centres in every constituency.
C The Conservatives want the private and voluntary sectors to be given a greater opportunity to be involved with children's centres.
LD The Liberal Democrats want to implement key elements of the ten-year childcare strategy: they plan to roll out 3,500 children's centres by 2010 which would provide integrated childcare, early education and family service to under-fives and incorporate training and communication networks for childminders and nannies.
Class sizes
L Labour plans a 15-year Building Schools for the Future programme through which it will upgrade primary schools nationwide - 'including under-fives and childcare facilities where needed'.
LD The Liberal Democrats would cut the average maximum class size at Key Stage One from 30 to 20. They say this would ease the transition from nursery to primary school and ensure all five- to seven-year-olds would receive more individual attention for their educational and social development.
Workplace nurseries
L Labour says parents using childcare supported by their employer will be able to get vouchers entitling them to tax breaks worth up to 50 a week each.
C The Conservatives would offer 10,000 start-up grants to encourage groups of companies or public sector providers to club together to offer a nursery for employees.
Out-of-school provision
L Labour envisages extended schools, working in partnership with the private and voluntary sectors, that would offer affordable out-of-school care from 8am to 6pm throughout the year for children up to the age of 14 with a range of arts, music and study support.
C The Conservatives will give every child the right to two hours of after-school sport a week with its Club2School programme, at no cost to parents.
LD The Liberal Democrats would offer wraparound care to all school- aged children by opening schools from 8am to 6pm. The responsibility for co-ordinating provision would lie with local education authorities, rather than adding to the workload of head teachers.
Further information
For more information on party policies, visit:
* www.conservatives.com
* www.labour.org.uk
* www.libdems.org.uk
