Poorer families miss out on early years care, say experts

Disadvantaged children who stand to benefit most from early years education are at risk of missing out, experts have warned, as the final stage of the government's funded childcare scheme gets under way in England.

- Sally Weale

From today, working parents who earn up to £100,000 a year are entitled to 30 hours of free childcare a week during term-time for children aged nine months to school age.

But families who do not earn more than £9,518 will not be eligible, and will have to pay £205 a week on average for the same amount of care for a child under two, according to analysis by the Coram Family and Childcare charity.

The charity says a child of working parents who meet the eligibility requirements will receive three times as much government-funded early education than a disadvantaged child by the time they start school.