Government plans risk creating 'low quality, no frills childcare'

The childcare squeeze has been an issue for decades, but it was only really the last Labour Government that tried to address the challenge, setting up Sure Start and providing more support for working parents through tax credits. We also provided free nursery places for three and four year olds – and were extending this to two year olds.

Since the election we’ve seen childcare provision undermined. There are 400 fewer Sure Start centres than in 2010, and the funding available for councils to train high quality nursery staff has been cut by 40 per cent.

We’re seeing spiralling costs as well – in one central London nursery, the cost of a full time place for one child has reached £42,000. That is a staggering amount – twice the average wage.

The Tory response to this crisis of affordability is to create low quality, no-frills childcare, which risk the safety of toddlers.

They want to pack in more toddlers into nurseries, increasing the numbers of children that nursery staff supervise. That isn’t what the parents around the country I have met and had emails from want. Even the Government’s own expert advisers on childcare have warned that their plans will threaten quality and won’t even reduce costs, and childcare providers are falling over themselves to criticise the policy.

We have listened to all of those calls, and I tabled amendments this week to the Children and Families Bill which would have protected the current ratios. Unfortunately, the Government voted down those proposals, and don’t show any sign of backing down.

There are also serious concerns around de-regulating childminders - when a similar plan was tried in the Netherlands, the quality of childcare fell and costs to parents and taxpayers kept on going up. Unsurprisingly, the Dutch Government has reversed its policy.

This is a childcare crisis of David Cameron's own making.

Five years of his Government will see cuts to support for parents of £15 billion, as families on low and middle incomes see tax credits cut and those on middle and higher incomes lose child benefit.

Support for childcare has been slashed, and families with two children have lost up to £1,500 in tax credits. They haven't got that kind of cash to spare to pay their extra childcare bills, and many have been forced to give up work or cut their hours instead.

The truth is, if you cut childcare support, you hurt the economy. Taking away help for families means there is less chance for parents – especially mothers – to go back to work.

Some people won’t lose though. The handful of millionaires who got a tax cut of thousands of pounds in the budget in April.

Labour’s approach is different. Labour’s Childcare Commission want to look at the evidence of what works well in other countries, but also what works well here – like co-operative nurseries, and childminder networks which provide support, training and facilities to childminders.

David Cameron needs to think again on the damaging cuts he’s made to support for working families and he needs to make sure that all parents have access to affordable, quality childcare.

Labour is listening to working families - we want people across the country to feed in their ideas and priorities to Labour’s Childcare Commission; you can do so by heading to http://www.labour.org.uk/childcarecommission.

Parents are asking a simple question – am I better or worse off than I was in 2010? While David Cameron promised to lead the most family friendly Government ever, families are feeling the childcare squeeze.

• Sharon Hodgson is shadow children's minister