Nursery World - London parents least likely to use free early education places

Take-up of free nursery education for thee-and four-year-olds is lower in London and among South Asian parents, research carried out for the Department for Education has found.

Children from South Asian backgrounds are less likely to use formal childcare than white British children.

Most parents using the free entitlement said they were ‘fairly or very satisfied’ with the number of free hours they received.

The findings are taken from two reports just published on the department’s website.

Statistics show that in January 2012 the number of children using free early education places was 1,264,420, an increase of 39,950 children.

However, the increase in numbers is largely due to a rise in the population of children in this age group, as the proportion of three-and four-year-olds in early education places is roughly the same as last year.

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