Childcare Bill will leave parents with 'shortage of places'

David Cameron will today announce that the government will bring forward plans to double free childcare for working parents, from 15 hours to 30.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, has criticised the plan saying: "the existing 15 hours of free childcare are so grossly underfunded that extending this without really looking at what it's going to cost will just exacerbate the problem".

He claimed that "long term for parents (the plan) is likely to leave them with a shortage of places".