The Children’s Commissioner is right to highlight the urgent need for action to support early years services and childcare. Childcare is excellent investment: it enables parents to work and boosts children’s outcomes. Even before the crisis, too many parents were struggling to find and afford the high quality childcare that supports their children’s development, with our research finding that only half of local areas have enough childcare for working parents. Without action this situation is set to deteriorate even further. For too long, childcare and early education has been treated as the poor relation of school education, and now there is a genuine risk that families will struggle to find a nursery to go back to in September.