Nick Clegg Visits Gravesend

The Deputy Prime Minister has been in Kent to encourage parents to check if they can get free childcare

From this September - more than 3 thousand families with lower incomes will be entitled to 15 hours of free childcare a week for 2 year olds

Nick Clegg read a story to children at the Bright Beginnings Nursery in Gravesend

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 to this September, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced today.

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.

It is intended that 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, Clegg announced today 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.