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<p>By 2020 this government will be spending £6 billion on supporting families with
childcare. All 3 and 4 year olds, and the most disadvantaged 2 year olds, can access
15 hours a week of early education. From September 2017, this government doubled the
childcare entitlement for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours a week.</p><p>
</p><p>We recognise that parents’ working patterns vary significantly and want to
ensure that the free entitlements deliver childcare to meet their needs, as well as
being high quality early education to support the development needs of children. We
are also encouraging partnerships between providers to support flexible provision.</p><p>
</p><p>In particular, we want 30 hours to continue to build on the flexible provision
that we were already seeing across the country with the universal 15 hours. All the
free entitlements can be “stretched” by taking fewer hours per week over up to 52
weeks of the year to cover term-time and the school holidays, for example 23 hours
for 48 weeks of the year, and free places can be delivered at weekends.</p>
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