Have you noticed the empty chair in the current national childcare debate? Working parents will tell anyone who wants to hear that childcare provision in this country is dire and that juggling the demands of home and office threatens their health and sanity.

The Government has placed the issue right at the top of its political agenda and is putting serious money into tackling the childcare gap. The publication of the National Childcare Strategy and its Scottish equivalent last week marks a major step forward in that commitment. Councils, voluntary organisations, and childcare providers are busy telling us and each other what they have to offer and how it can be better used. But what about the bosses?

Companies will spin you a great line if you ask them about ''family-friendly policies'', a catch-all for everything from workplace nurseries to flexible working and parental leave. Nobody wants to be seen to be on the wrong side in the debate. That's why 74% of Britain's top companies said they feel employers have a moral responsibility to provide family-friendly policies, in a Mori survey for the Daycare Trust, published yesterday. And 74% said there was a good business case for such policies.

Yet there is a truly gigantic gap between what companies say about this issue and what they do. The same survey showed that only 5% have a workplace nursery - in Scotland the figure is probably much lower. Only 9% said they were likely to make a contribution to nursery costs for employees in the foreseeable future.

Clearly, most companies, even big ones, remain to be convinced that helping their workforce manage their work/life balance will make them more profitable. Colette Kelleher, director of the Daycare Trust, says this is because most of them haven't evaluated such policies. (Only a quarter of the companies in their survey had done so.) She maintains that if they did, they would find that such policies would help them attract and keep skilled staff, especially highly trained women; the company would receive plaudits for its enlightened attitudes; staff morale would improve and absenteeism fall.

Midland Bank's childcare programme arose from a concern about the company's haemorrhage of experience: 70% of women were leaving following childbirth. The loss of these women, with an average of 11 years' service, was costing the company too much. The bank now provides 900 nursery places and staff turnover has fallen impressively.

Hardly any large private companies in Scotland operate workplace nurseries. Motorola is a significant exception. The company employs 500 people in central Scotland making semi-conductors and mobile phones and three years ago established an on-site nursery offering 50 subsidised places at its Bathgate plant. The nursery, open more than 11 hours a day, reflects not just Motorola's desire to attract and retain quality staff but also a strong company commitment to family values.

Paul Edwards, human resources consultant for Motorola, will be the member of the newly created Scottish Childcare Board charged with trying to convert the stated good intentions of Scottish companies on family-friendly policy into some sort of reality. He admits it'll be a tough job. Some Scottish universities run nurseries and a few local authorities. Glasgow City Council has a 15-place nursery at Queenslie Industrial Estate for the children of staff and buys another 70 places at a nursery in Cowglen. But Margaret Dobie, a senior education officer, with special responsibility for pre-5 provision, says few employers see childcare as part of their remit.

In two years she has received just three approaches from employers wanting to purchase a nursery place for a valued member of staff. ''If you only talk to employers, you get the impression that it isn't needed, yet we know from parents that it's needed desperately. People won't risk their job by putting demands on their employers. Women are frightened their employers will turn to someone else,'' she said.

As part of the Scottish Childcare Strategy, she is trying to involve Glasgow employers in the childcare debate. Glasgow City Council is interested in forming partnerships with employers. Companies could purchase some of the spare council nursery places in the city centre or provide accommodation for a council-run facility.

However, while employers feature quite prominently in the new strategy, at present there are few incentives to bring them on board. Recently there was much publicity about an imaginative childcare initiative being launched by the BBC. Rather than opening workplace nurseries, the corporation was prepared to work alongside existing nurseries.

Each nursery would receive a small capital grant for every employee's child registered and a member of staff would join the management committee. The employee would have the cost of the nursery place deducted from pay and would be taxed only on the remainder. The initiative was cancelled at the last minute after the Inland Revenue said it didn't comply with Treasury rules for tax relief on childcare.

This is discouraging, especially for small and medium-sized companies, where workplace nurseries are clearly impractical. Douglas Millar, deputy director of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said yesterday that, though he believes large companies will slowly start to invest in childcare in the next 10 to 15 years, it was unreasonable to make such demands on smaller one: ''Our members are already baulking at the prospect of increased business rates under a Scottish Parliament. Some, especially in manufacturing, are struggling to survive because of the high pound. The last thing they want is for us to suggest they spend on something they can't afford.''