Despite the recognition of the failure of the market we are not getting anything like the universal childcare in publicly funded nurseries that other European countries have.
Rather it is a complicated mixture of private and state provision, with means testing and benefits for the low-paid, totally inadequate for those mothers who return to work after the maternity entitlement is finished, whether by necessity or desire.
The government claims a combined budget for Sure Start - early years education and childcare - of £1.5bn including a doubling of spending on childcare by 2006. But all of this is from a very low base line.
In 2000, 68% of three yearolds in Sweden were in preschool education, 70% in Norway and 80% in New Zealand, while in Britain it was only 53%. And for provision before the age of three, the gap is even bigger.
Total spending on early years education and care in Britain, plus parental leave payments, is around 0.8 per cent of GDP (around £10 billion in 2004/5) but in both Sweden and Denmark it is currently 2-2.5% of GDP on early education and care, excluding parental leave payments. nurseries means that part-time They are almost entirely female, earning on average £8,000 in a private day nursery, rising to between £10,000 We don't