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The Government has revealed details of the winning bids for its £50 million capital funding scheme, designed to support the 30-hour childcare offer. The full list of winning bids can be viewed .

 

First announced in November 2015, the government expects the scheme to provide 9,000 free childcare places for eligible three- and four-year-olds. Just under 200 nurseries and pre-schools will receive a share of the funding to invest in upgrading facilities.

 

Justine Greening, education secretary, said that the scheme will “remov[e] barriers facing parents who are struggling to balance their jobs with the cost of childcare”.

 

She added: “This funding, backed by our record £6 billion investment in childcare per year by 2020, means we can make more free places available to more families across the country, helping us to deliver our childcare offer to thousands more children.”

 

More than £2 million of the funding is earmarked for the education secretary’s six ‘social mobility cold spots’: Blackpool, Derby, Norwich, Oldham, Scarborough and west Somerset.

 

Neil Leitch, chief executive at the Pre-school Learning Alliance, commented: “While today’s announcement will undoubtedly be welcomed by the 200 early years providers who will be benefitting from the additional funding, for tens of thousands of nurseries, pre-schools and childminders who won’t, the challenges ahead remain unchanged.”

 

He added: “Creating an additional 9,000 places in a sector that already delivers just under 1.3 million represents an increase of just 0.7% -- a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed.”