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Parents facing a 'postcode lottery' for 30-hour places

Parents in England are facing a ‘postcode lottery’ for 30-hour places as new data shows huge variations in the number of codes validated per local authority, says the Pre-school Learning Alliance.

Codes for the 30 hours can only be validated by local authorities once parents have secured a childcare place with a provider.

The warning from the Alliance comes as a breakdown of figures by local authority on the number of 30-hour codes that were validated by the beginning of the autumn term (5 September) is published by the Government, revealing huge regional disparities.

However, since then the Department for Education has published updated figures, which show the number of codes validated nationally has risen from 71 per cent on 5 September to 90 per cent on 9 October. The Government has not published a local authority-level breakdown for these updated figures.

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