Since the initiation of universal free part time early education in England in the late 1990s there has been significant expansion in the funded entitlements on offer. Most recently, the introduction of an increase to 30 hours of free ‘childcare’ for the children of working parents in 2017 was a major advancement in provision. Yet as a recent report acknowledges:
‘Despite this remarkable progress in expanding educational opportunity over the past decades, access to high quality education remains incomplete and inequitable.’ (International Commission on the Futures of Education, 2021, p.21)
