I AM on a bit of a mission of help young families.

Time and time again I meet parents who are struggling to meet the costs of housing, travel, food and childcare.

The mother (or increasingly the father) wants to go back to work, but when you do the sums it is barely worth doing.

Many decide to anyway, just to keep their foot on the ladder, or to have more adult contact time, but it is not easy.

So, I was very pleased when the Government introduced their 30 hours of free childcare policy which kicks in this week. This was an extension of policies the Liberal Democrats pushed in coalition and is one of the answers to closing the gender pay gap, as well as allowing parents a real choice about how they want to bring up their families.

It is available to all three and four-year-olds from most in-work families, as well as some two-year-olds if you are on benefits.

However, as soon as the policy started rolling out, it has faced difficulties. We knew early on the money would be an issue: the Government pays providers far below what it really costs to provide the care. In England 74 per cent of providers said they would not be able to cover their costs. In Oxfordshire I’d wager that is higher, and anecdotal evidence is that very few providers are willing to take the hit. For those who are, they are subsidising it by increasing the costs to the under 3s and also charging for things they might not have before.

For example, lunch, early and late pick-ups, nappies and baby wipes etc. are on the list of added extras.

Meaning, in reality, it isn’t as comprehensive a solution as we had first hoped.

The other issue has been accessing the vouchers in the first place.

Back in mid July I asked an ‘Urgent Question’ in the House of Commons about issues people were having with the website.

The Government’s Childcare Minister was summoned and assured that they would look into it.

The issue has now been picked up by former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan as something the Treasury Select Committee will investigate in September.

This reminds us of the importance of policy being more than just words.

Implementation matters too. As I said to the minister – 'good effort, but not good enough'.

I would encourage all parents who are using this to please get in touch with me if you have any issues so I can keep pressing this.

I genuinely believe such policies are worth pursuing, but if something is worth doing, I also believe it needs to be done well.