WHEN Nicola Sturgeon launched her first programme for government as First Minister last week, one of her stated priorities was gender equality.

Her aim, she said, was to smash the glass ceiling for women and one of the ways she intends to do it is by increasing free childcare. The specific aim is to offer parents 30 hours of free childcare a week, which represents almost double what is currently on offer.

Exactly how this policy will be achieved and how it will be paid for (it is expected to cost £400 million a year to deliver) is still to be finalised, but it is a welcome attempt to tackle a persistent problem. Women often end up stuck in part-time, low-paid jobs because they cannot find or afford childcare that would enable them to work full-time. Tackling the childcare deficit has the potential to free some women from poverty as well as narrow the gender equality gap.

There are two elements to the childcare problem: availability and affordability. On the first, it is clear many parents still struggle to find places for their children. Current SNP legislation entitles families to 600 hours of funded early learning and childcare for three and four-year-olds, but only one fifth of local authorities report having enough childcare for working parents.

Only last week a group of parents from Glasgow told the First Minister that there are not enough suitable places in the city. Ms Sturgeon has promised to meet the parents to talk about the problem, but it must be obvious that tackling the childcare deficit will have to include the creation of new places across the country.

On the issue of affordability, the situation is even worse, as a Citizens Advice Scotland report published today makes clear. The report says the average cost of putting a child aged between two and five in nursery for 25 hours a week is £5,307 a year, with this rising to £5,514 for youngsters under the age of two. To add to the problem, nursery bills are rising faster than inflation.

Tackling both problems - availability and affordability - will require action on a number of fronts, including encouraging employers to offer flexible conditions to help working families. A big step towards this has been taken today by the introduction of new regulations that allow parents to share the care of their child in the first year, but action may be required too on zero-hour contracts, which can make it particularly hard for parents to plan their childcare.

In addressing these issues, Ms Sturgeon's Government will also have to make big investments, starting with £600m to build enough new nursery spaces to meet the 30-hour promise. The good news is that such an investment would come with potential economic benefits for the country as a whole in enabling more women to go out to work, or to work for longer than they currently do. In other words, this is not some issue of narrow interest to parents only: the fact that childcare is not working is a problem for the entire economy.