Parents in full-time employment can access free childcare, but unemployed parents cannot.

If all parents could dip into free childcare when they needed it – for instance, to attend training and job interviews – it would truly benefit many of my constituents on lower incomes, who are struggling to get back into employment.

I made this point in a debate about the Education Committee’s report, ‘Tackling disadvantage in the early years.’ This report found, in its own words, that “the Government’s flagship 30 hours childcare policy appears to be entrenching disadvantage.”