From September working parents of three and four-year-olds will be entitled to 30 free hours of childcare per week in term time compared with the current 15 hours. But nursery operators have warned the funding per child is inadequate to cover the costs of the scheme and may end up raising the cost of childcare for families.

Morgan Parker, deputy manager of Little Legs Nursery in Southend-on-Sea, told the Today programme the government funding pitches wages too low when compared with the minimum and living wage:

"I don't know how we're going to fund all the staff when it's such a little amount."