Free childcare trials brought forward, PM to announce
BBC News | Education | Judith Burns | 1 June 2015
Trials of a scheme top double free childcare for working parents in England are to be brought forward a year to September 2016.
Parents in some areas will be entitled to the extra childcare earlier as pilot schemes are rolled out.
The government has also committed to better funding for the free places.
But the Pre-School Learning Alliance says the system faces “meltdown” if the government does not raise the amount it pays providers.
The funding review must be “full and thorough”, said the charity.
Currently, all three- and four-year olds in England are entitled to 570 hours of free early education or childcare a year, which works out as 15 hours each week for 38 weeks of the year.
The Childcare Bill, announced in last week’s Queen’s Speech, would double this for working parents.
Speaking ahead of his announcement, David Cameron said the government was “pressing ahead with these reforms so that not a moment is lost in getting on with the task, going further than ever before to help with childcare costs”.
