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Daycare Trust chairperson Lisa Harker has urged the government to use its current review of child care to set a new vision for children's services and build a modern child care system.

Writing in Childcare Now, she said the review offered a "once in a lifetime opportunity to create publicly funded services that meet the needs of children and families in twenty-first century Britain".

She said the review was "a chance to take stock and reflect on where we might be in five, 10 or 15 years' time".

Some parts of the National Childcare Strategy may need to be rethought, said Harker. For example, the current allocation of the billions of the pounds to fund different parts of the strategy may need to be questioned.

"Services for children need to be seen as publicly funded services, not as simply a market or an employee perk. The current demand and supply funding mix may need to be rethought," she said.

In addition, Harker called for the costs that parents face - 93 per cent of total child care expenses, compared with 25 to 30 per cent in some other countries - to be reduced.

She added: "We have an unprecedented opportunity to establish child care as an exemplary area of public policy, inspired by a vision about where we ultimately hope to get to and informed by a sense that we can all work to make it a reality."