With four years under her belt as the Liberal Democrats' spokeswoman for children, young people and families, Annette Brooke has seen plenty of changes in the sector.
But she still feels these changes are not enough and that more must be done to help today's children and young people.
Decent childcare has been high up on the Liberal Democrats' agenda in the past, particularly to help families who need it most. But Brooke says the early years workforce also needs serious attention.
"We've had reservations about the government bringing in the Early Years Foundation Stage," she says. "We don't agree with bringing targets into nurseries or literacy goals for three-year-olds. We would want to be more flexible but have really high-quality education and learning provision. We have to upskill and professionalise the early years workforce because at present it's very low paid. We need to value the early years teachers more as they're the most important teachers in a child's life."
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