Nursery World - Labour might extend free childcare hours

The Government is looking at extending the child tax credit scheme to enable parents on low incomes to have more than the two-and-a-half hours a day of universal free provision they receive for their three- and four-year-old children. The Sure Start Unit at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) said last week that the Government was set to announce that from April all three-year-olds would have a free part-time nursery education place of five two-and-a-half-hour sessions a week for 33 weeks - six months ahead of Labour's election pledge of universal provision for three- and four-year-olds by October 2004.

The Sure Start Unit at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) said last week that the Government was set to announce that from April all three-year-olds would have a free part-time nursery education place of five two-and-a-half-hour sessions a week for 33 weeks - six months ahead of Labour's election pledge of universal provision for three- and four-year-olds by October 2004.

It added that as of last September, 808,000 childcare places for more than 1.4 million children had been created since 1997 and that by 2006 'enough new provision will have been created to benefit over 2 million children'.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included