Today, childcare policy is a high profile issue. Both the Government and opposition parties have made new policy proposals that will be developed in the run up to the next election. The Family and Childcare Trust welcomes these measures, but believes that interventions need to be based on a robust evidence base, including an evaluation of past policy. Learning from the Last Ten Years of Childcare Policy provides this analysis, and we hope, a basis on which to build new policy. Evaluating a long-term government strategy poses challenges, exacerbated in this case by changes in government. The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (2013) provides methodology for approaching this exercise, with its Framework for Analysing the Effects of Social Policy suggesting that such an analysis should comprise: 1. An identification of each chain of policy action initiated by governments 2. An examination of the resources committed to each action 3. Analysis of how these resources were used 4. An examination of the measurable outcomes that were achieved. This is the broad approach we have taken. Whilst also making a more subjective assessment of progress against the four broad aims of the 2004 childcare strategy. Learning from the Last Ten Years of Childcare Policy is in seven sections. Section Two provides a background. It examines the legacy of policy in the years before the 2004 childcare review and summarises the changes since then. It is these post-2004 policy changes that we evaluate. Section Three looks at choice and flexibility in childcare and evaluates the strategic goal for parents to have a greater choice about balancing work and family life. Section Four examines the availability of childcare, looking at whether local authorities have fulfilled their obligation to ensure sufficient childcare. Section Five analyses quality and considers regulation regimes and measures to improve the qualification profile of the early years and childcare workforce. Section Six examines the remaining area covered by post-2004 policy, that of affordability. Finally, the conclusion draws together the analysis and make some recommendations about the future direction of childcare policy. We hope that Learning from the Last Ten Years of Childcare Policy will inform debate and make an argument for reform in childcare policy. (author abstract)