Mr Byers voiced his personal views on the future direction of childcare policy while kicking off discussions at a round-table debate hosted by 4Children in London last week on a model of integrated provision for nought to 16-year-olds.
Many of Labour's policies currently focus on families in the 20 per cent most deprived wards in England. Mr Byers said that he believes a move to universal provision would be popular with the electorate and bring enormous benefits to parents, children and society as a whole.
Mr Byers said Sure Start currently reaches only one quarter of deprived children because half live outside the targeted areas and only half within the targeted wards are benefiting.
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