Nursery World - Exclusive: The Minister's View

The 2011 census found there were 3.5 million children under five in England and Wales, which is 406,000 more than the last census in 2001.

At the same time as this demographic boom, the Government wants to roll out free early education.

Taken together, these represent a huge opportunity for the early education sector, and we want to do all we can to help you and your businesses take advantage of this opportunity.

From September next year, some 130,000 two-year-olds will be eligible for 15 hours of free early education each week; with a quarter of a million two-year-olds benefiting the year after that.

We know that children from poorer backgrounds are much less likely to have access to early education at the moment. Seventy-three per cent of two-year-olds from the richest families experience early education, compared with only 31 per cent of two-year-olds from low-income families. We need to do more to help those disadvantaged young children. This is at the heart of the coalition's commitment to extend the free entitlement.

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