Twitter readers may have seen my exchanges this week with Tory childcare minister Liz Truss, and my Telegraph blog responding to her somewhat interesting take on the IPPR’s rebuttal to her CentreForum report on affordable childcare.

It is no surprise that the minister broke the embargo on the IPPR’s report to try to get the first word in. Their thorough and detailed deconstruction of her paper showed that the Dutch deregulation of childcare introduced in 2005 that she champions not only led to costs to the government spiralling out of control, but also to a marked decline in the quality of childcare. Costs tripled and the proportion of providers judged as ‘unsatisfactory’ jumped from 6 per cent in 2001 to 49 per cent in 2008.

Not only that, but the minister failed to acknowledge that the only reason that Dutch parents pay less for childcare than their UK counterparts is because employers are responsible for paying a third of their fees – without that, costs to parents would be equal to or more than they are here.

Labour recognises that despite all the progress we made in government, there is still more work to do; that is why we set up our Childcare Commission in April. We did make significant strides that we should be proud of: sure start, childcare tax credits, and the free entitlement for three- and four-year-olds (and pilot schemes for two-year-olds which this government is now trying to claim as its idea) all provided support to parents – particularly mums – to return to work when they were ready.

In addition, we introduced the early years foundation stage to provide structure and consistency to early education, and significant dedicated funding to local authorities to improve the quality, affordability and availability of all kinds of childcare in their area, including the graduate leadership fund to subsidise the cost of highly-qualified early years workers leading practice in group settings.

And what has been this Tory-led government’s record since 2010? The funding for sure start and those supply-side childcare subsidies are no longer ringfenced and have been slashed by around a fifth. Parents on low incomes have seen the amount they can claim against their childcare costs through tax credits cut by 12.5 per cent, while costs continue to rise.

Those decisions have contributed to a childcare crisis – a triple whammy for parents of higher costs, less support and fewer places. It is little wonder that studies have shown that tens of thousands of women have chosen to stay at home instead of going back to work since 2010.

Perhaps even more worryingly for parents, David Cameron has appointed Liz Truss as the childcare minister, who just last year called for the introduction of top-up fees for parents to be able to access the hours they are supposed to get for free, and she has refused to rule it out since.

Labour’s childcare commission has already started holding listening sessions around the country, and more will follow.

We are clear that a One Nation childcare system should be affordable to all, while being of high enough quality so as to contribute to improving child development and support parenting, and therefore increase social mobility.

The IPPR’s report suggests that rather than ‘going Dutch’, we should draw on the examples set by the Scandinavian countries – particularly Sweden and Denmark – where a focus on stable supply-side funding has built up a range of high-quality provision for parents to choose from, whether that’s in nurseries or with childminders.

We have an open mind, but the outcome of our review process will be based on best international practice, like that in the Scandinavian countries; solid evidence, and most importantly, wide engagement with parents and the childcare sector, who our decisions will affect the most.

We will never countenance a race to the bottom, which will only ever hurt those families on the lowest incomes, and throw away all the hard work that the foundation years workforce have put in over the last decade to improve outcomes.

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Sharon Hodgson MP is shadow minister for children and families. She tweets @SharonHodgsonMP

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Photo: Kate Lundy