We know that families living on low incomes, where only one partner is working, often need additional training before they can compete in today’s jobs market.

Thanks to a new £75 million programme announced by the Labour Government low-income families across Barnet will get free childcare so they can access training and return to work.

The Free Childcare for Training and Learning for Work programme will support low-income families where one parent is working and the second parent wants to improve their skills so they can return to work.

As well as free childcare, families will receive help from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to identify and attend training. Jobless families who cannot get support from elsewhere will also be eligible.

But while Labour will continue investing in childcare and early years provision, the Tories would cut £200m per year from Sure Start.

David Cameron has said he will cut £200m per year from Sure Start in order to employ more health visitors instead.

The Tories claim the savings can be made by axing the additional outreach workers to be recruited from this year. However, the Government is spending an extra £79m per year on outreach workers — not £200m as the Tories say. This will mean a further £121m of cuts to Sure Start each year — on top of the cuts to outreach workers.

Labour is committed to eradicating child poverty and has already lifted 600,000 children out of poverty and this new programme will assist even more families to break out of the poverty trap.

High-quality, affordable childcare is fundamental. By making this offer we are helping parents who would otherwise find it difficult to get financial help for childcare, to gain the skills and the confidence they need to return to work.

The £75m announced by the Government opens up new opportunities for the whole family — enabling parents, where only one partner is working or in some cases jobless families, to be offered free childcare so that they reassess their skills. Better skills lead to better jobs and better incomes and will in the longer-term help lift whole families out of poverty.

Parents who want to get back to work will be helped by a £75m programme announced by the Labour Government.