Nursery World - Huge rise in take-up for funded places (1)

Nearly 100,000 more three-year-olds in England were taking up funded places in the private and voluntary sector in January 2003 than a year before, according to statistics published by the Department for Education and Skills last week.

Provisional figures for January 2003 reveal that 271,500 three-year-olds had subsidised places outside maintained sector provision - up from 184,600 in January 2002. The proportion of three-year-olds with funded places in the private and voluntary sector increased from 31 per cent to 47 per cent.

Overall, 88 per cent of three-year-olds took up either places at maintained schools or funded places in the private or voluntary sectors or independent schools. However, as some of the funded places will not have been for five sessions a week comprising two-and-a-half hours each, this does not mean that the Government has already surpassed its target of a free early education place for all three-year-olds whose parents want one - marked by 85 per cent take-up. It expects to meet this goal by April 2004, six months ahead of the original target.

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