However, CYP Now understands the money is not a fresh tranche of funding but represents an allocation of a share of the £4bn already announced for childcare over the next three years.
Early years workers' union the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses said it had hoped the money would be a newly announced pot, but was not surprised that it was not.
Tricia Pritchard, the union's senior professional officer, said: "We are used to getting an initial announcement that it is new money, then looking deeper and realising it isn't."
Children's minister Beverley Hughes made the announcement on Thursday (22 November), saying it would help nurseries provide the free entitlement and go towards equipping them for children with disabilities.
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