The charity warns that unless the 30-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds is funded adequately and childcare providers are encouraged to offer more flexibility, many working parents who really need the places will miss out.
It highlights that employers could do more to help parents by allowing them to adjust their working arrangements, for example by letting them work some days from home, or alter their hours to fit in with childcare provision.
The number of parents contacting Citizens Advice for help with childcare has doubled in the past year to almost 1,200.
Research by the advice charity last year found that a quarter of the 400 providers surveyed did not offer parents the 15-hour entitlement, although this figure included childminders, of which 46 per cent did not offer the funded places.
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