As part of children's strategy The Best Start for Children, The Best Deal for Families the Lib Dems want to see 20 hours of free childcare for all children aged between 18 months and five years.
The party also wants to see children's centres adopt a similar role to teaching hospitals and take the lead on local childcare training. This includes providing a crèche for children being looked after by childminders to give them time to take courses.
Other measures include overhauling maternity and paternity leave to create 19 months entitlement for parental leave that both parents share.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "Britain is a long way off becoming a child-friendly country. Our childcare provisions are among the worst in Europe. They discriminate against workless parents and freeze fathers out of looking after their young children."
At the Daycare Trust's national conference last week Clegg also said he wanted more men to join the childcare workforce.
Although the strategy makes no mention of this a spokesman said: "This is something we are continuing to look at. This latest strategy contains initial proposals and further details will be released in due course."
Register Now to Continue Reading
Thank you for visiting Children & Young People Now and making use of our archive of more than 60,000 expert features, topics hubs, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:
What's Included
-
Free access to 4 subscriber-only articles per month
-
Email newsletter providing advice and guidance across the sector
Already have an account? Sign in here
