
The Alliance wants feedback from nurseries and pre-schools about whether they intend to take part in the extension of the free entitlement.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said that many providers in the sector have reservations about whether the level of funding for two-year-olds will cover the costs of offering the free places, given longstanding problems with under-funding for three-and four-year-old places.
It is understood that a shortage of 40,000 places for the initial rollout of the scheme from September 2013 has been predicted by DfE officials.
Twenty per cent of two-year-olds in England will be entitled to a free nursery place for 15 hours a week from 2013, increasing to 40 per cent from 2014-15.
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