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Childcare: 16 local authorities to take part in pilot of free childcare scheme

1 min read
The Government has identified 16 local authorities to take part in a long-awaited pilot of free childcare for two-year-olds, Children Now can reveal.

The first few schemes in the two-year pilot are due to launch nextmonth.

All are expected to be up and running by September. The plan wasoriginally announced in spring 2004 but has only just been finalised,and it was feared that the scheme had been dropped.

However, Children Now has discovered that the Department for Educationand Skills is set to launch the pilot in April with the aim of getting6,000 children into free childcare in the first year.

Overall, the Government hopes to reach 12,000 two-year- olds. The pilotwill focus on children in disadvantaged areas including communitieswhere take-up of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds has beenlow. It will also attempt to target families that have traditionallyfound it harder to access childcare such as those with disabled childrenand people from Black and ethnic minority communities.

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