Childcare Is For Children contains the Assembly's response to the recommendations put forward by the Childcare Working Group in January 2005.
It links into Flying Start, a 46m initiative which aims to give children living in disadvantaged areas in Wales a better start in life (News, 13 October).
The three main objectives of the strategy are to ensure that childcare supports the developmental needs of children, to ensure that it is widely available and affordable, and to provide childcare so that parents can balance work, family and other commitments.
The Assembly is allocating 12.5m for childcare and introducing a programme of free childcare and family support through Flying Start, placing a statutory duty on local authorities to provide sufficient childcare as part of the Childcare Bill, and taking over the leadership of Childcare Wales Learning and Working Mutually, a project which seeks to tackle childcare challenges in partnership, with an additional 1m over two years.
Work within childcare and early years is part of the Assembly's commitment to children's development and links into the learning through play Foundation Phase for three- to seven-year-olds and support for children outside school hours. The Assembly is also developing a national strategic action plan for play to be published shortly.
The first Welsh National Childcare Strategy was published in 1999.
* Minister for education Jane Davidson is also expected to announce this week that Clybiau Plant Cymru Kids Clubs has been awarded 3.7m in Objective 1 funding to increase affordable, quality out-of-school childcare provision, complementing the funding available under the Genesis Wales project. See next week's Nursery World for details.
