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Labour might extend free childcare hours

The Government is looking at extending the child tax credit scheme to enable parents on low incomes to have more than the two-and-a-half hours a day of universal free provision they receive for their three- and four-year-old children.

The Government is looking at extending the child tax credit scheme to enable parents on low incomes to have more than the two-and-a-half hours a day of universal free provision they receive for their three- and four-year-old children.

The Sure Start Unit at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) said last week that the Government was set to announce that from April all three-year-olds would have a free part-time nursery education place of five two-and-a-half-hour sessions a week for 33 weeks - six months ahead of Labour's election pledge of universal provision for three- and four-year-olds by October 2004.

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