The New Opportunities paper sets out plans to extend free childcare for two-year-olds to 15 per cent of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds in every local authority in England. The plan will make an extra 23,000 two-year-olds eligible for 10 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks a year.
The government has already made £100m available until 2011 to fund up to 20,000 places for two-year-olds in 63 local authorities.
Geethika Jayatilaka, deputy chief executive of 4Children, said: "The free childcare pilot scheme has lots of positive outcomes in terms of child development. What we know from the offer for three- and four-year-olds is that it has a very high take-up and is particularly useful for children from disadvantaged backgrounds."
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