Twenty councils in England already offer 15 hours (see box).
The remaining local authorities will be given Government funding to extend the 15-hour offer to the most disadvantaged families in their areas from September 2009.
Last week the Government pledged £340m for three years from 2008-11 through the Standards Fund to extend the offer so that all local authorities can provide 15 hours of early education for 38 weeks a year by 2010.
But Darrell King, owner of the Old School House Nursery in Headcorn, Kent, warned that many private nurseries were already struggling to offer the current 12.5 hours a week to parents, because Government funding did not cover their costs.
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