Analysis: Political parties tell us their childcare priorities

The general mood of the early years sector could be summed up in the phrase 'cautiously optimistic'. While there is recognition of the aspirations of Labour initiatives, there is also a clear-sighted perspective on where they are failing.

For Linda Baston-Pitt, proprietor of the Old Schoolhouse Day Nursery in Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire, the burning issue is how to achieve sustainability for businesses.

'We've seen the launch of some quite radical, forward-thinking initiatives, but we are still asking how they can be properly backed by funding,' she says. 'Graduate leadership is a case in point, and this aspiration needs more financial backing to make it concrete.

'While childcare has achieved greater recognition for its part in the cycle of getting families into work, businesses are still struggling with many financial issues such as VAT and business rates.'

At the Northlands Park Children's Centre nursery in Basildon, Essex, manager Katie Pilgrim says there is a feeling of uncertainty among her staff.

'Our nursery is run by the Pre-School Learning Alliance, so we feel a little bit safer than if we were financed entirely by Sure Start,' she says. 'There has been a lot of coverage in the local press about jobs being axed in children's centres, so that is worrying, but in the meantime we are plodding along.'

Ms Pilgrim says that she and her team are content with the status quo. 'Anyone who goes into childcare knows it is not going to be highly paid, and everyone here feels they receive a reasonable salary. We are positive about the EYFS and have been able to embed it effectively. We very much hope that whichever party gets into power continues with childcare vouchers and working tax credits, because these do make a huge difference to our parents.

'We also hope that a new Government will be attuned to the good work of children's centres and uphold their ethos.'

At the Fatherhood Institute, head of research Adrienne Burgess welcomes the emphasis on more father-friendly policies by all three main parties. 'There is still a problem with terminology, however, where the word "parent" is used instead of "father". Nowhere in the Conservative manifesto is the word "father" actually used.'

Ms Burgess says that while all three parties have outlined ways to extend paternity leave, none is likely to prove very effective.

'Fathers are unlikely to take up parental leave unless it is paid at 90 per cent of their salaries, and is an entitlement which is exclusive to them,' she says. 'Policies need to be workable to enable families to make choices. But it is encouraging to see that this issue is high on their agendas.'

Karen Walker, director of the Children's Place Nursery chain in Yorkshire, also believes that tax credits can be a lifeline for families. 'If these policies are changed, it will affect what parents can afford,' she says.

While she feels that some areas of progress, such as integrated services, have stalled, she praises many improvements in training.

'I am delighted that we have seen funding for qualifications, and are now moving towards a graduate workforce. I personally have had the opportunity to support staff to move up to Level 4 and potentially on to a degree. We can now genuinely talk about continuing professional development for many staff. If this were to be lost it would be hugely disappointing.'

Further information

See News, page 4. See also 'Question time' (15 April) for policies of the eight main parties in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

To find out all the candidates standing in your constituency, go to www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1399623/Complete-list-of-General-Election-candidates.html

LABOUR

By Ed Balls, Labour's Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families

Families are the bedrock of our society. That's why we have always made supporting every child such a high priority, to give them and their families the opportunities to get on in life, extra help when they need it most, and security when times are tough.

Today, families come in all shapes and sizes as patterns of family life change in response to shifts in the world around them. What matters most of all is that we support strong, loving relationships between parents, and between them and their children. And while family relationships are rightly personal and private, no family or community should have to go it alone.

Marriage plays a fundamental role in family life and strong families are at the heart of strong communities. If we want strong families, we need to support them with the right policies and laws which put the welfare of children first. That's why we are pledging to protect the Child Trust Fund, the Child Tax Credit and early years provision.

The Conservative proposals are to give to some married couples with one hand and to take away from children with the other. Their cuts to tax credits, Child Trust Funds and Sure Start would hit families on middle and modest incomes hard, while their policy to give some married couples a £3 a week tax break - so long as one half of the couple stays at home - penalises other kinds of loving families. We reject the idea of a tax policy based on a value judgement that says some kinds of families are, by definition, better than others.

Today's tough financial climate is piling extra pressures on to families, adding to the daily challenges many already face in coping with going out to work to earn a decent income, looking after a home, and caring for children and often for elderly or disabled relatives too. And we know these pressures often fall most heavily on women.

One of the best ways Government can help is by offering high-quality, flexible childcare, and by bringing this within the reach of working families through tax credits. Since we've been in Government that's what we've tried to do, backed up with £25bn of investment in high-quality early years provision since 1997. As a result, we have doubled the number of registered childcare places over this period.

UNIVERSAL SERVICES

In addition, we have extended maternity leave and raised maternity pay. We have introduced new rights for carers and also brought in paid paternity leave for the first time - because we recognise that Dads increasingly want to take an active part in their family, and because we know this benefits Mums and children too.

We have created Sure Start, a new universal service for the under-fives and their families, with more than 3,500 children's centres now open.

Parents can now get free early years education for threeand four-year-olds, rising to 15 hours in September. And we are on course for all primary schools to offer wraparound childcare and a menu of varied activities for children by the end of 2010, available 8am to 6pm, five days a week, 48 weeks a year.

MANIFESTO PLEDGES

These are really significant achievements, but we recognise that there is much more to do. So, in our manifesto we promise:

• - A new 'Toddler Tax Credit' of £4 a week from 2012 to support all parents of young children - whether they want to stay at home or work
• - More help for parents to balance work and family life, with a 'Father's Month' of flexible paid leave
• - An extension of the right to request flexible working to older people by the end of the Parliament, because we know many, including many grandparents, want to vary their hours to free up time to help their families, as well as to adjust to changing lifestyles
• - More flexibility over the hours during which children can access nursery education, such as taking them over two full working days, as well as greater choice over when children start school. We have also said we will explore allowing parents to carry over their free hours from year to year
• - Childcare vouchers will be retained, with all families receiving income tax relief at the basic rate
• - Childcare standards will continue to rise as we support the early years workforce to access training and higher qualifications.

And while we will take the tough decisions necessary to halve the deficit in the next parliament, Labour will keep the funding rising for our priorities, including Sure Start, schools and childcare. In contrast, the Conservatives refuse to protect any of these areas from cuts. For early years professionals, and indeed for millions of mums and dads, that will be a big choice at this election.

www.labour.org.uk

CONSERVATIVES

By Maria Miller, shadow minister for the family

General elections are all about debate. I thought that I might use this opportunity to lay out some of the key elements of the Conservative Party's plans for childcare and early years provision.

First, Sure Start. As David Cameron has said repeatedly, Sure Start will be at the heart of our plans to improve early years services and we believe every community that needs a children's centre should have one. We want Sure Start to do more for families, not less. Evidence shows that while many families get a great service from Sure Start, it still does not always engage the most vulnerable families.

Should we win the election, we will reverse Labour's health visitor cuts and create a universal Sure Start Health Visitor service, making the service more effective at engaging the hardest-to-reach families. We will provide 4,200 extra Sure Start Health Visitors to give every family the expert help and advice they need.

We will also introduce direct funding for Sure Start so more voluntary organisations have the opportunity to manage and provide services in children's centres. This will allow organisations with a track record of supporting families to make a difference to local communities. We would also allow staff to set up co-operatives as a way of managing children's centres. These new independent Sure Start Centres will be paid partially on the results they achieve. So, through outcomes-based commissioning, people on the ground will be able to shape services to better meet the needs of their own community.

FREE ENTITLEMENT

Second: high-quality childcare, for many families, remains unaffordable. Just 26 per cent of families eligible for the working tax credit claim the childcare element. Many families have been put off claiming tax credits because of the errors in payments and heavy-handed administration. We will reform this bureaucratic system of claiming, making it easier for parents to claim the childcare element of the working tax credit.

Voluntary, private and independent providers of childcare and early education, as well as those in the maintained sector, are all deeply concerned about the Government's funding of the early years entitlement. Almost 1,400 nurseries and childminders closed between April and December last year, leaving parents with less choice and less access to flexible childcare. Conservatives support the free entitlement and are determined to do everything we can to ensure problems with funding are addressed.

We will temporarily suspend the 2006 Code of Practice to help stop more providers going out of business. Knowing that around four in five families work atypical hours, we also support flexible childcare - particularly from childminders - and will work to give greater support to this vital group of professionals, whose numbers have been dwindling since the 1990s.

We would also work to cut the bureaucratic burden on private and voluntary providers by creating a slimmer version of the Early Years Foundation Stage, following the forthcoming review of the EYFS in the autumn of this year, as well as considering how we can accommodate outstanding providers with alternative approaches.

For me, the next stage for the sector is to improve quality across the board. It cannot be right that the standard of childcare in the most deprived areas has declined in recent years. We all know that top-quality pre-school education can make such a difference to children's outcomes and boost social mobility, which has been shamefully stagnant for so long. So, we will provide more funding for advanced apprenticeships for all ages so childcare staff can continue to develop their skills.

FLEXIBLE WORKING AND PARENTAL LEAVE

Third: flexible working and parental leave. As a working mother, I know all too well how difficult it can be to balance the competing demands of work and family life. To help parents strike the right balance, a Conservative Government would extend the right to request flexible working to all parents of children under the age of 18. We want to lead by example, so we would extend the right to request flexible working to all those in the public sector, recognising that this may need to be done in stages.

In the longer term, we hope to extend the right to request flexible working to all. To help parents during the challenging first months after a baby is born, we would create a new system of Flexible Parental Leave, letting new parents decide how they would like to share the current 52 weeks of maternity leave between them, including the opportunity to take leave at the same time.

FAMILY FINANCES

Finally, family finances. With families feeling the pinch, the next Government must do all it can to relieve the burdens they face. To help make ends meet, we would cut waste to stop Labour's jobs tax, making seven out of ten working people better off than under Labour. We would work with local councils to freeze council tax for two years. We would end the couple penalty in the tax credits system, which means couples can be paid more if they split up than if they stay together. And we would recognise marriage and civil partnerships in the tax system, using some of the proceeds of a levy on banks to make four million couples up to £150 better off.

Together, our policies on Sure Start, early years provision, flexible working and family finances mean the Conservatives have by far the most family-friendly manifesto of any party at this election. Under David Cameron, we have a clear mission: to make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe. I hope that you will be able to join with us to make this change happen.

www.conservatives.com

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

By Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader

There's something happening in Britain. We are about to have an election that, more than any I can remember, feels as though it could really bring about change. For decades, Labour and the Conservatives have handed power between them, each taking turns in Government, both eventually making the same mistakes. But now it feels like something else is possible; in this election everything's wide open; all bets are off.

So, you have a choice. You can stick with the red team, despite 13 years of being let down. You can go back to the blue team, even though all they really offer is more of the same. Or you can pick a party that's different. A party that will finally deliver fairness for families across Britain.

Liberal Democrats will do that. We will hardwire fairness into our society, and we'll do it by making sure that every child gets the best start in life. It just isn't right that so many children's life fortunes are still dictated by the circumstances of their birth - like where they're born, or how much their parents earn. So, we'll change it. Starting from when children are very young, because we know the early years are crucial in how a child develops, and what happens to them later on. I believe that if we can give families proper support and proper choice, we can make sure all children get the early education they need to flourish.

That means helping working families get the balance right. I know from my own life how difficult that can be. Miriam and I both have busy jobs, and juggling work and home when you've got three boys, including a one-year-old who still doesn't sleep through the night, isn't easy. A lot of people are in that situation, and they need to be able to be flexible. So, Liberal Democrats will introduce shared parental leave.

At the moment mothers get a year while fathers get a measly two weeks. Under our plans, parents will be able to split a year however they like, including taking six months off together if that's what they want. And we'll give everyone the right to ask for flexible arrangements at work. There's still a huge stigma around flexible working, especially for men. We'll change that by encouraging more people to ask for it, including grandparents.

AFFORDABLE CHILDCARE

Childcare is crucial here too. Finding reliable, affordable childcare can be a nightmare. The changes we'll make to the tax system will help ease that burden, as under our plans, no one will pay any income tax on the first £10,000 they earn. We'll pay for it by closing loopholes enjoyed by the very wealthy, giving almost everyone else £700 back. That's £1,400 extra every year for most working couples.

We'll also help our nurseries and childminders - the hidden army of people looking after Britain's children. For too long, too many nurseries and childminders have been weighed down with endless rules and regulations from Government, as if ticking boxes is all it takes to look after children.

Labour hasn't tackled the skills gap either. So Liberal Democrats will take a different approach. We'll reform the Early Years Foundation Stage - we certainly don't need 19 learning goals for every three-year-old. Instead, we'll introduce a framework that's more flexible, because children learn and play in different ways. And we'll keep standards high by making sure childcare providers are trained in the skills they need. We want to see every nursery led by a graduate, and members of the childcare workforce should all have an NVQ level 3 or higher.

We also need to get more men working in childcare. At the moment they only make up 3 per cent of the childcare workforce. But children would benefit hugely from having a mix of people looking after them. That's what's happened at a childcare centre in my city, Sheffield, where they have defied the odds and managed to recruit half women and half men. They now employ ex-miners and steelworkers from Hartlepool and Sheffield, all because they made an effort and wouldn't bow to stereotypes.

Finally, Liberal Democrats will make sure that when children do get to school, they get the best start there too. We'll invest £2.5bn of new money into a Pupil Premium, by making cuts elsewhere in Government, so that teachers can cut class sizes and provide more one-to-one tuition, so no child falls behind.

Flexibility for families; a hand with childcare bills for families; more freedom and training for childcare providers; the best start at school for children. That's practical help that will make an enormous difference in homes across Britain, and it'll help make our society fairer too.

It may seem so obvious, but decades of Labour and Conservative Governments still haven't delivered these changes. So, now's the time to do things differently. I want to live in a Britain where every child has the opportunity to do well. The 6 May is your chance to make that happen.

www.libdems.org.uk

Meerkats photograph

Meerkats stood in for political party leaders on a mock TV debate set created by animal centre owner Steve Rowlands to help young children learn about the General Election. Mr Rowlands, from Oldbury, West Midlands, took his handmade, miniature version of the television studio into schools to help explain the battle to lead the Government. He said, 'The kids have really loved seeing them and I think it's a good way to make something like the election a bit more fun.'