Free childcare for 50,000 families

Department for Children, Schools and Families Press Notice 2008/0189 (8 September)

Low income families across the country are to get free childcare so they can access training and return to work, thanks to a new £75million programme announced by the government on 8 September.

The "Free Childcare for Training and Learning for Work" programme will support 50,000 low-income families where one parent is working and the second parent wants to improve their skills so that they can return to work. As well as free childcare, families will receive help from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to identify and attend training. Workless families who cannot get support from elsewhere will also be eligible.

Read the full press notice

Hazel's comment:
Without going into all the small print, which I haven't seen, I couldn't say whether this new scheme is likely to make a great deal of difference to child poverty which is its aim. I do know that so long as the government defines poverty in relative terms then there will always be poverty. Just because you are in the "below average" category does not make you poor and the sooner that someone manages to come up with a definitive measure the better.

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