Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and children’s minister Sarah Teather have published their proposals to give 140,000 disadvantaged two year olds 15 hours of free early years education.
It builds upon the party’s achievement of extending free childcare to 15 hours a week for all three and four-year-olds.
Children’s minister Sarah Teather commented on the announcement saying:
“Our priority is to increase social mobility by helping children from the poorest backgrounds in their earliest years. High quality early education is the key to making a difference early on in a child’s life. It’s crucial for their healthy development and means they’re not falling behind before they have even started primary school.
“We want more children to be able to access their full early education entitlement. Too often, the most disadvantaged children don’t get what they are entitled to. It’s important we target early education at those who stand to benefit the most.
“We also want to make the entitlement more flexible, so that children don’t miss out on early education and parents can help balance their work and family life more easily.”
Redditch Borough Councillor for Winyates Malcolm Hall said:
“We know that there is a link between children’s backgrounds and their educational attainment. Early education is vital to cutting this link.
“I am delighted that the Liberal Democrats in government are pursuing this policy, putting social mobility front and centre after years of stagnation under Labour and Conservative governments.
“This will make a real difference to youngsters in Redditch”
The announcement is part of a consultation, published today, on changes to free early education. The proposals published in the consultation will:
Make the free entitlement to 15 hours per week of free early education more flexible. This means parents would be able to access it earlier and later in the day – between 7am and 7pm – and across two days instead of three days.
- Use the criteria which is used for free school meals to decide which disadvantaged two-year-olds should qualify for free early education.
- Include two-year-olds who are looked after by the state in the eligibility criteria for free early education.
- Slim down the guidance for local authorities from 100 pages to fewer than 20 pages.
