Despite considerable state funds invested (£2 billion per year, National Audit Office, 2012), this is the first rigorous study attempting to evaluate the effects of this policy. From 2000, fully subsidised part‐time nursery places (hereafter ‘free places’) were rolled out across England for all three year olds.
2 This policy was part of a general shift towards intervention in the early years through both universal and targeted programmes. In this article, we evaluate the effect of the dramatic increase in free provision of early education and childcare for three year olds in England on early school outcomes. First, maternal employment was high and supported by an established childcare market of private and public providers second, the expansion relied entirely on the private sector to provide additional free places which were funded and regulated by the state.
The social and economic context prevailing in the UK in the early 2000s makes the British expansion stand out. This article focuses on the UK, specifically England, 1 a relatively late adopter of universal early education compared to other European nations. There is a dual rationale behind these policies: to support maternal employment and to promote child development, particularly that of disadvantaged children. Over the last several decades, many governments around the world have sponsored the expansion of early education and childcare.
