Ten more areas will be trialling more places for two-year-olds, so that some children will become eligible a year earlier than originally planned.
They are Blackpool, Cornwall, Greenwich, Kent, Lambeth, Lancashire, Newcastle, Northamptonshire, Peterborough and Rotherham.
Nick Clegg and children’s minister Sarah Teather are also holding a summit today with some of the largest childcare providers to discuss how best to expand the two-year-old scheme.
Early years organisations have previously raised concerns about whether enough providers will want to offer the places for disadvantaged two-year-olds or make capital investment to increase the size of their settings.
Longstanding issues around inadequate funding for three-and four-year-olds have meant that some early years settings are effectively subsidising free places themselves.
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