EXCERPTS:
More than 250,000 toddlers [in Britain] are to be given free nursery or childcare places in an attempt to help parents get back to work, the chancellor has announced.
George Osborne outlined a scheme to provide 15 hours a week of free early education for around 40% of two-year-olds. At present, all three and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours of free nursery education per week.
The government had previously announced plans to extend the free entitlement to all disadvantaged two-year-olds - some 140,000 children whose household income is less than £16,190.
Under the scheme, funding for free childcare for two-year-olds will be increased to £380m a year by 2014-15, increasing the number of places to 260,000.
Osborne told the Commons: "We can double the number of children who receive this free nursery care - 260,000 children from the most disadvantaged families will get this support in early years. This is how you genuinely lift children out of poverty."
-reprinted from the Guardian