Thousands of childcare places for pre-school children in England will be created under a £50m scheme, the government has announced.
The scheme will help to deliver a government pledge to offer three and four-year-olds in England 30 hours of free care a week in term time.
Nearly 9,000 early years places are expected to be created. But critics said the funding was "woefully short of what was needed" and would only benefit a few providers.
The Department for Education said that almost 200 nurseries and pre-schools would benefit from the funding pot, allowing them to invest in new buildings, upgrade old ones and improve facilities.
Initially, £2m of the public money will be invested in six "opportunity areas" - places considered by the government to be falling behind on social mobility.
These are Blackpool, Derby, Norwich, Oldham, Scarborough and West Somerset.
