Simon Harris

So, for example, we expanded the back to school education scheme to preschool for the first time, expanded some hot school meals to preschool and have a plan to reduce the costs for families most in need from September.

So we have taken three steps this year, but I'm more resolute than ever.

I don't see childcare as just a societal issue or social issue, though it is.

I don't see it just as an equality issue, though it is.

It's also an economic issue.

It's a vital part of our infrastructure, absolutely.

So the truthful answer to that is I have an open mind on it.

So I think through ECI, the early child care programme, we're now seeing children actually following a curriculum before they go into primary school and we're seeing vast educational benefits from that.

Do we want a model, though, where everybody in the sector is employed by the state?

Do parents want that?

I'm not sure.

Because, remember, childcare isn't just about sending your child to a creche.

There's many parents who would have gotten up this morning and dropped their child to a house of a childminder.

There's many childminders who would have come into houses as well.

So I do think we have to have that flexibility that we don't over-regulate.

And I think a fully, fully public service, everybody works for the government model, might actually have a rigidity in it that doesn't perhaps understand...

the variety of childcare options families go by.

What I'd much rather see is the state work with providers and recognise that a parent will choose where their child is minded.

I mean, it's not my job to choose where your child is minded.

It is my job, though, to make sure it's affordable.