SIR – The ‘tick-box’ obsession of our bureaucratic rulers knows no bounds now! Less of a joke, it is fast becoming a threat to our humanity.

I refer to the ‘number-game’ concerning the care of children in nurseries. The care of a child has little to do with numbers of carers. A child is not just a supermarket commodity, to be processed on an assembly line and then stacked on shelves. It is not only the physical needs of a youngster that are important but emotional and traumatic effects.

To be cared for by strangers in an unfamiliar environment is distressing at any age. To a toddler it is even more devastating. It is a mother’s love and attention that means all the world in the early years.

I am all for women having free access to the workplace. But if you take on the responsibility of a child your duties as a mother of a toddler come first. At least until they reach school age. There is more to ‘care’ than purely material well-being.

Early care is best delivered in the home. If it is a question of ‘numbers’, one-to-one is best. That one is the mother.

Mrs Pamela B McCallum, Albert Street, Thornton