What action it is taking to enable working women to balance work and family life.

Our Child Care Strategy is about supporting children and families. Good quality affordable child care not only benefits children, but can help parents to take up work or study. We allocated £16.75 million to local authorities through Child Care Strategy funding in the current year, and this will rise to £40.65 million by 2006. Officials have worked jointly with colleagues in the Department of Trade and Industry to develop a Work Life balance Toolkit for Child Care Partnerships. The Toolkit will help Child Care Partnerships engage with local employers on the business case for adopting family friendly policies.We are liaising with the Department for Work and Pensions on the new child care partnership manager's role in Jobcentre Plus districts. From April 2003 child care partnership managers will aim to help improve the information flow on child care services, particularly for lone parents, to encourage more parents into employment.