Childcare is opening a "new frontier" for the welfare state, Gordon Brown has claimed.

Visiting a community centre in London on Tuesday, the chancellor detailed Labour's third term plans to provide more help for parents with young children.

The Treasury chief has put childcare at the heart of his spending plans, pledging last year to fund a children's centre in every community and allocating £285 million a year to extended maternity leave.

Opening the Sands End centre in Fulham, he said these policies, along with the government's Sure Start scheme and plans for more nursery places and after school care, were developing a new and permanent wing of the welfare state.

Last week Labour unveiled the slogan: "Your children with the best start," as one of its six key election pledges. The party sees the issue as crucial to connecting with female voters.

Brown said the centre was also a good example of joined up services for adults and children under one roof, and of money "well spent".

"Every child is special, every child is precious, every child is unique and every child counts," he said.

"We are determined over the next few years to improve child services as well as adult education.

"We will create 300 more Sure Start centres in every part of the country.

"We will help mothers get higher levels of maternity pay and we will provide more hours of nursery education for three to four-year-olds."

"This range of childcare services represents a new frontier in the modern welfare state," he added.