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Please find below a comment from the Early Years Alliance on  that the Labour Party is considering putting forward a mean-tested early years offer in place of the current so-called 'free entitlement' offer, with greater support given to families on lower-incomes.

Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: 

"It’s clear that the current approach of making grand promises of more and more free childcare without fully considering the funding needed to make them viable – something that parties from across the political spectrum have been guilty of – simply isn’t working.

"Instead, we’ve been left with a broken system where parents are faced with soaring prices, settings are struggling to keep their doors open and early years professionals are leaving in their droves.

"We fully support the principal of universal early years provision but have also always argued that if this is not possible, investment should be targeted at the families most in need of support, whose children research has shown will benefit the most from access to a high-quality early education.

"Of course, the devil is, as always, in the detail. How exactly would means-testing work in practice? What steps would be taken to prevent this creating an additional workload burden on providers? And at what level would any subsidised hours be funded?

"Ultimately, whoever is in government after the next election, what the early years needs is a clear and comprehensive strategy, underpinned by adequate investment and with the needs of the child at its centre. The sector is unlikely to survive anything less."