So it is necessary to turn to the accompanying notes for illumination, and, even then, some very careful reading is required to decipher what the impact of legislative change could be.
This is certainly the case with the just-released Education Bill, where most of the news coverage has centred on its proposals for academy expansion, greater disciplinary powers and changes to the inspection system.
However, as our news story (page 6) shows, the Education Bill also makes possible the ending of the universal provision of the free entitlement for threeand four-year-olds. There is nothing to say that this is going to happen, and the Bill has no explicit statement that it could. But the legislation that now means that a child's age is the only criteria for deciding who is entitled to the free 15 hours is being changed to allow for a family's economic circumstances, for example, to be taken into account, so that only disadvantaged two-year-olds can access the offer.
And therefore, it follows that this could be applied in the future to the universal free entitlement for three and four-year-olds as well. Government policy is committed to the universal offer, but such a move could save huge amounts of money and solve some of the private sector's problems with under-funding of the free hours. It could also prove hugely unpopular with parents of young children and some parts of the early years sector!
Time will tell if this legislative change will eventually be used to curtail the free entitlement. It is also worth noting that the Bill allows the Secretary of State for Education to determine 'the nature of early education' as well.
