The CAP 09-11 phase of the programme, which was announced by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, last Thursday (6 August) will run from December 2009 to December 2011 and will be managed by the London Development Agency (LDA).
The first phase of the CAP helped 8,500 families with children under five to find subsidised childcare places.
Denise Burke, head of childcare at the LDA, said, 'The first phase of the childcare affordability programme, which we now call CAP 05, was incredibly successful and 8,500 parents were helped back into work. However, the feedback we got from local authorities was that although the programme was successful, it needed to be run on a more localised level.
'CAP 09 takes the successful aspects from CAP 05 but has taken into account the criticism from the boroughs. We have developed a more flexible offer rather than one-size fits all.'
The new funding will be used to run two pilot schemes - a 'parental support' pilot and a 'subsidised offer'. The boroughs of Islington, Barking and Dagenham, Enfield, Lewisham and Merton are taking part in the parental support pilot, where parents will be helped into work and assisted with claiming any tax credits that they may be entitled to.
The subsided offer, where parents will be offered a subsidy on top of their childcare tax credit, will be piloted in Hackney, Southwark, Brent, Ealing and Wandsworth.
The boroughs were chosen on the basis of the number of workless households they contain, the level of deprivation and the availability of childcare.
To be eligible for the scheme, parents must be unemployed and living in a household with an income below £20,000. They will receive help over a 12-month period.
