Newcastle Parents Get Free Pre School Childcare

30 May 2012, 09:08 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Almost 1,000 two-year-olds are to benefit from free childcare a year early, after it was decided to bring forward trials in 10 areas in England, including Newcastle.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced. He also announced changes to introduce greater flexibility to allow more parents to take advantage of the scheme - already used by more than 800,000 three and four-year-olds.

150,000 of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds will receive up to 15 hours a week of free pre-school education from September 2013, rising to 260,000 in 2014.

Chancellor George Osborne announced in his 2010 spending review that the free childcare currently available to three and four-year-olds would gradually be extended to two-year-olds in England.

Following a consultation, Mr Clegg announced that the first areas to benefit, in September this year, will be Blackpool, Cornwall, Greenwich, Kent, Lambeth, Lancashire, Newcastle, Northamptonshire, Peterborough and Rotherham.

He added that parents will be given the option to spread their free nursery place over two days, rather than three, and to use the free hours between 7am and 7pm, rather than 8am and 6pm.

The changes are intended to make it easier to fit the childcare around working lives. New guidance will also make clear that nurseries cannot make the free childcare conditional on parents also taking up additional paid-for hours.