A Suffolk mum has said a proposed Government changes to childcare are "damaging" and will "negatively impact our children".

Jen Fuller, a mum of two from Sudbury, has said that the proposed move to raise the child-to-adult ratios for children two years old in nurseries from 1:4 to 1:5 will have a "dramatic and far-reaching impact" on children's development.

The Government also want to allow childminders the ability to care for more than three children under the age of five if they already care for siblings or if they look after their own baby or child.

The childcare changes were discussed in Parliament on Monday, November 14.

Mrs Fuller, the founder of Etta Loves, a sensory baby product company, said: "Who will these childcare changes benefit?

"Not the children who at this age are learning and developing a vast amount of new skills.

"To ensure they get the best chance of reaching and exceeding the developmental targets they need a lower child-to-adult ratio, not a higher one.

"It certainly won't help most nursery settings to save money, as the Government suggests, due to so many being hugely underfunded currently."

The current childcare policy from 2015 says that parents can claim 30 hours of free childcare a week for working parents.

Mrs Fuller continued: "The 30 hours is not actually free, as many can attest to.

"I run my own business and my husband works full time, and at one point both our daughters were under three and in full-time childcare, which was financially crippling for us.

"When we became eligible for the 30 hours of free childcare, we thought our problems were going to be alleviated.

"We quickly discovered that we still had to pay around £20 a day to cover the basic nursery costs, meaning our combined monthly bill was still over £1,000.

"The free funding also only covers term-time, meaning those that work during seasonal breaks and half terms, still need to fund around 12 weeks of childcare."

Mrs Fuller has challenged the government to shelve the "damaging, cost-cutting exercise" and work out how to provide full year-round quality childcare.

She added: "The government must listen to parents and carers and see the error of this proposed policy, and must work harder to propose better ways to support families through quality, affordable childcare.

"This must be priorities as it has a huge impact on so many people, or else families will continue to have impossible choices to make."