Speaking at the Daycare Trust conference, the children’s minister said, ‘I want to limit the burdens on children’s centres to make them responsive to local need. At the moment it doesn’t make sense to make all children’s centres offer full daycare in disadvantaged areas, if there is not the take-up to make use of it.’
Ms Teather also said that the Government intended to legislate, to have a guarantee for disadvantaged two-year-olds to have the free entitlement for 15 hours ‘on the statute book by 2013’.
Responding to the announcements, Anne Longfield, chief Executive of 4Children, said, ‘We warmly welcome free childcare for deprived two-year-olds year olds being placed on a statutory footing. All the evidence shows that getting children off to a good start in life has the biggest impact on their life chances.’
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