A Department for Education study found that promotion of the entitlement was not reaching many disadvantaged families, who were in the dark about the free hours they can claim.
The report, Towards Universal Early Years Provision: Analysis of Take-up by Disadvantaged Families From Recent Annual Childcare Surveys, found that "lack of knowledge about local early years provision was a substantial barrier to taking it up".
This was an even greater issue than lack of good-quality childcare places, which was highlighted as another barrier by the disadvantaged families surveyed in the report.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said promotion of free nursery education needs to involve more outreach work in disadvantaged communities and be promoted better by social workers and health visitors.
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