The Government's crusade to combat child poverty and social exclusion by encouraging more parents into work or training risks eclipsing from early years provision a powerful tool for helping disadvantaged children - education.
'It is the old problem that the two separate strands of early years provision, education and care, have never really been amalgamated,' says Professor Helen Penn of the University of East London.
'They have completely different funding arrangements. On the education side, two-and-a-half hours is on offer so parents have to purchase care.
The care side has to be self-sustaining, so people do not employ teachers because they are too expensive.'
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