Huge rise in take-up for funded places

Nearly 100,000 more three-year-olds in England were taking up funded places in the private and voluntary sector in January 2003 than a year before, according to statistics published by the Department for Education and Skills last week. Provisional figures for January 2003 reveal that 271,500 three-year-olds had subsidised places outside maintained sector provision - up from 184,600 in January 2002. The proportion of three-year-olds with funded places in the private and voluntary sector increased from 31 per cent to 47 per cent.