A GOVERNMENT minister used a visit to Chorley to urge parents to check their eligibility to free childcare.
Visiting Duke Street Nursery School, Sam Gyimah, minister for childcare, said new figures showed two-year-olds in Lancashire are on course to miss out on 1.7 million hours of no cost provision this year.
The free childcare is available to children from families on lower incomes and parents are being encouraged to find out if they are eligible. Today’s figures show that about half of Lancashire’s 6,000 eligible children are missing out on the offer.
Sam Gyimah, said: “It’s great news that more than 3,000 two-year-olds in Lancashire are already benefitting from a free childcare place, but we want to make sure that no eligible child misses out.”
Free childcare for two-year-olds was introduced in 2013, with the number of places available doubling nationally to reaching about 40 per cent of all two-year-olds from September 2014.
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