Autumn Statement 2011: free childcare for one-in-four toddlers

More children will be given free childcare, the Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement.?Photo: ALAMY

Some 40 per cent of two-year-olds in England will get 15 hours of childcare a week as part of a ￡650m programme.

The proposals – outlined in George Osborne’s Autumn Statement – will be aimed at children from the poorest homes.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, the Chancellor insisted that a decent education was the best way to pull the most deprived youngsters out of poverty.

He said the move would allow mothers to return to work and give children a “real chance” of eventually going on to university and gaining a degree.

It comes just days after a major report from the Sutton Trust charity warned that the educational gap between rich and poor was wider in England than many other developed nations. Researchers said deprived pupils were already a year behind wealthier classmates when they started school aged five.

Currently, three- and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours a week of early education for 38 weeks a year.

The Department for Education had announced an extension of the scheme, saying around 140,000 two-year-olds would also win the entitlement.

But in his statement, the Chancellor announced the number would now be almost doubled to around 260,000 children.

"Education. Early years learning. That is how you change the life chances of our least well off - and genuinely lift children out of poverty," he said.

Some ￡73m will be spent on the proposals next year, rising to ￡203m a year later and ￡380m by 2014/15.

The Daycare Trust, which represents nurseries, welcomed the proposals but suggested any benefits may be offset by a freeze on Working Tax Credits for couples and single-parent families.

Anand Shukla, chief executive, added: “At a time when family budgets are increasingly squeezed and childcare costs are rising, parents will now be forced to shoulder more of these costs themselves. This risks trapping families on benefits if they find that they are no longer better off in work.”

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Today’s changes will not bring back the 124 Sure Start centres which have closed since the government came into office and our poorest families will be hit by the squeeze on benefit increases.

“While the richest continue to get richer, the poorest children will miss meals more often and will continue to miss school for want of shoes.”