The Government has reverted to its original plan to offer free placesonly to two-year-olds in the most deprived areas.
The commitment to extend the free entitlement to 20 hours also appearsto have been put on hold.
In his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference in September,Gordon Brown said the Government would 'stage by stage, extend freenursery places for two-year-olds for every parent who wants them inevery part of the country' (News, 24 September).
Details in the Chancellor's Pre-Budget report on Monday reveal that theGovernment has backtracked after assessing evidence on the value formoney of childcare and its long-term childcare objectives.
The report said, 'The value for money evidence demonstrates thatproviding a level of free provision for the most deprived two-year-olds,in line with the Prime Minister's commitment, is likely to have agreater positive impact on child outcomes than extending the numbers offree hours of childcare available to three- and four-year-olds beyondthe 15 hours per week they will receive by 2010-11.'
But chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance Steve Alexandersaid he did not think that the Government had gone back on its long-termcommitment to extending the free entitlement.
He told Nursery World, 'I don't think it's a U-turn. I'm sure that inthe fullness of time there will be an extension to the freeentitlement.'
He said he was more concerned about the impact of the current economicclimate. 'Market conditions are extremely volatile. There is a questionabout whether parents can afford childcare. Providers cannot survivewith the funding that's available. We need sustainability on theprovider side.'
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day NurseriesAssociation, said the offer for two-year-olds would have the mostbenefit for children from deprived backgrounds. She said, 'If funding islimited then we support it being initially targeted here. In addition,the current funding system for free childcare for three- andfour-year-olds is fraught with issues and it is absolutely vital thatthese are resolved and providers receive a sustainable level of moniesbefore an entitlement is extended, both in number of hours and to ayounger age group.'
A DCSF spokesperson said, 'The PBR statement identifies extending thefree early education entitlement for two-year-olds as our priority. Thenext steps on rolling out the Prime Minister's commitment on a freeentitlement for two-year-olds and on developing the free entitlement forthree- and four-year-olds will be contained in the childcare strategydocument which we will publish soon.'