Government thinking on childcare has been heavily influenced by decades of academic research demonstrating the boost in academic attainment at Key Stage 1 and beyond to those children, particularly from deprived backgrounds, receiving high-quality childcare.
There is currently cross-party consensus for extending the support parents receive for childcare costs. In fact, with Labour proposing 25 hours of free childcare to all working parents of threeand four-year-olds and the coalition extending the current free entitlement, something of a bidding war is taking place.
Under the government's free childcare scheme, since September 2013 the 20 per cent most deprived two-year-olds have been able to access 15 hours of free childcare for 38 weeks in a year at a good or outstanding childcare setting. It is early days for this policy, but already 70 per cent of those eligible - 92,000 children - have taken up the opportunity.
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