He has just announced plans for affordable and flexible childcare for parents of all under-fives, and says it will be financially possible to meet the pledge by the end of a third Labour government.
"There's a large amount of money that is already being spent in terms of childcare," he says. "There is public money that is going in, for example, through Sure Start and children's social services, individual money that parents pay, and some relatively small contributions from employers as well.
"But I think there's a serious argument about whether we're getting the best bang for our bucks. We need to bring those streams together, using children's centres as the organisational base. In addition we have got the extra resources the Chancellor has allocated through the Comprehensive Spending Review, so we can put that money from the state in. And I also think we ought to generate more money from employers in this area."
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