Editor's view - listen to Mrs Hodge

As chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge has presided over what could prove to be a very influential report on the funding of the free entitlement for threeand four-year-olds (see Analysis, pages 14-15).

Mrs Hodge was a fiercely committed children's minister, who was never afraid to take the civil service or other politicians to task. The hard-hitting PAC report, which talks of the Department for Education's 'limited understanding' of how the early education money is spent, could finally move the impasse on the free entitlement on.

It should lead at least to local authorities publishing how much of the Dedicated Schools Grant they spend on the free entitlement - indications are that this ranges from 3.5 per cent to 9.8 per cent. True transparency could effect some change.

The Single Funding Formula has never lived up to its name - across authorities or even within each one, and money that was not sufficient for high-quality provision and not enough for sustainability continued to be handed out with nurseries told it should be plenty.

It is amazing that Ministers have seemed so unaware of the problems, even at the recent summit intended to discuss the roll-out of the two-year-olds offer. Nursery World has covered the issue extensively; the Save our Nurseries campaign has been waged for years. Yet seemingly, the strength of feeling took the politicians by surprise.

All this as the two-year-olds programme is accelerated, realistically without a fighting chance of success in providing enough high-quality places.

Time to listen to Mrs Hodge!