Launched by the New Labour government, sustained investment in childcare infrastructure led to a rapid expansion of childcare places. An additional £470 million was committed to expand and improve childcare services for children from birth to three years, and out of school provision for children under 14 years.
In the 1970s–80s, childcare campaigns had been driven by concerns around women’s equality and workplace access. By the late 1980s, concerns about labour shortages (“demographic time bomb”) pushed childcare into the mainstream as an economic necessity until, under New Labour (1997 onwards), childcare became linked to child welfare, early education, and anti-poverty strategies.
As Gillian Pugh sums up, in her contribution to 50 years of early years provision 1971-2021, “As the 1970s moved into the 1980s and the demands grew for a better response to the needs of young children and their families, it became clear that there were many different views and voices joining the debate. Was the emphasis to be on providing a better start for children ‘nursery education’ – as they entered formal school settings, or was it ‘day care’ that was needed to enable parents to work, thus reducing the benefits bill and reducing poverty? Was the driving motivation equal opportunities for women, or meeting the developmental needs of children?” …
“For the new Labour government, elected in May 1997, children, and in particular a commitment to reducing child poverty, were high on the agenda of both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the exchequer. … The immediate outcome was the National Childcare Strategy, published in 1998, and the Sure Start programme also established in 1998”.