Opinion

Christine Farquharson: Why take-up of the two-year-old offer has really fallen

Take-up of the funded two-year-old offer might be at an all-time high– but eligibility for the benefit is lower than ever, says IFS senior research economist, Christine Farquharson.

Figures from the DfE show that the number of two-year-olds taking up a free entitlement place fell to just under 125,000 in 2022-23: 8 per cent lower than in 2021-22, and a record low since the full two-year-old offer was introduced in 2014.

Despite this, the take-up rate reached an all-time high last year, with 74 per cent of eligible twos accessing a place.

There are two trends underlying these seemingly contradictory numbers.

First, big demographic changes are afoot: the number of young children in England has been falling sharply.

In 2014-15, when the two-year-old offer was introduced, there were just over 700,000 two-year-olds in England.

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