This event took place on Monday 3 October.

The UK is facing a childcare crisis. Families increasingly struggle to meet the costs of care and early years providers are battling to keep workers from leaving the sector. Access to high-quality early years education (0-5 years) plays a vital role in narrowing the outcome gap between children growing up in deprivation and their more affluent peers, in addition to allowing more caregivers to return to work.

In partnership with Bright Blue and MumsNet, we brought together industry experts at the Conservative Party Conference to discuss big ideas for a broken sector. Is universal childcare the answer? Do we need market disruption? How do we guarantee quality of service and affordability for caregivers at the same time?

Chair

• Camilla Tominey, Associate Editor, Daily Telegraph

Speakers

• Ravi Gurumurthy, CEO, Nesta
• Ryan Shorthouse, Chief Executive, Bright Blue
• Justine Roberts, CEO & Founder, Mumsnet
• Rachel Carrell, Founder, Koru Kids
• Brendan Clarke-Smith, MP for Bassetlaw, Minister for Children and Families
• Professor Kathy Sylva, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Oxford

The opinions expressed in this event recording are those of the speakers. For more information, view our full statement on external contributors.