Sure Start provides for 650,000 children. By 2008, Labour will have established 2,500 centres and by 2010 there will be 3,500 centres – one for very community.

• Labour has guaranteed a free, part-time early years place for every three- and four-year-old whose parents want one.
• Nearly 1,300 new Neighbourhood Nurseries are now open – the largest single increase in new nursery provision since 1945.
• Labour has increased maternity pay and extended paid maternity leave from 18 weeks to 9 months
• Labour has raised statutory maternity pay to £106 a week from £55 under the Tories.
• Labour has given parents with children under six a new right to request flexible working: one million parents have used this right, with nine out of ten requests accepted in part or in full.