Mr Kennedy argued that the proposal, which also entails top-ups from the Government when the child is five, 11 and 16, with extra amounts for the most deprived, meant that vitally needed cash would be locked up for 18 years when it could be used to provide integrated services.
The Lib Dems said they would use the money saved - around 250m a year - to make early years centres available in communities to provide integrated education, health and social services during a child's early years, as well as support for parents.
While Tory leader Michael Howard extolled the virtues of choice in education, his party has no official policy yet on the early years and childcare.
A Tory Central Office spokeswoman said that Theresa May, the newly-appointed shadow minister for the family, was working on the policy with the shadow education and health secretaries, Tim Collins and Andrew Lansley. 'We expect to have the policy ready in the next five or six weeks,' the spokeswoman added.
In their policy document, Fair Foundations, launched in the spring, the Lib Dems argued that their early years centres would resemble the existing early excellence centres but would have a wider remit. The document stated that the early years centre concept was also close to the Government's proposed children's centres, but the party wanted to see a speedier roll-out of early years centres across the country.
While Labour has targeted the 20 per cent most disadvantaged wards in its initiatives, the Lib Dems said they would have early years centres serving the 50 per cent most deprived wards within one parliamentary term and the rest of the country by the end of the second parliament.
Lib Dem spokeswoman for children Annette Brooke, MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, said, 'Liberal Democrats strongly believe that investment in the very early years of a child's life has a significantly positive influence on their development in later life.'
She said the party was committed to supporting the childcare sector by raising the standards of training and the number of qualified staff working with children, 'which will lead to much higher standards of professionalism in childcare and a higher status for the sector overall'.
