§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for(a) England and (b) each local education authority in Hampshire the number of additional free early years education places that would be required to meet the Government's target of free places being available for 66 per cent. of three-year-olds by 2002. [115965]
§ Ms Hodge[holding answer 23 March 2000]: We shall have created 190,000 new free early years education places for three-year-olds by March 2002, at a cost of £390 million over three years. This will meet the national target of providing 66 per cent. of all three-year-olds in England with a free place.
The following table shows the estimated number of new places required in the local education authorities in the county of Hampshire to take the number of free places available in their areas to the level of the national target.
389WThe criteria for distributing places have not yet been decided for 2001–02. The distribution will take account of factors such as social need. As a result, individual authorities may have higher or lower proportions of free places than the national average.
Number Hampshire 9,174 Southampton 1,080 Portsmouth 828