Many children receive free early childhood care. Pic: Wikipedia

Tower Hamlets Council have produced a new set of figures, in response to an article in the Evening Standard which stated that the borough is the worst in terms of free early childhood care.

The data released by the Department for Work and Pensions shows that Tower Hamlets is ‘average’ in relation to the other borough’s early childhood care services.

According to the data, Tower Hamlets offers 774 free childcare nurseries and pre-school spaces attending to the needs of pre-school children and their caregivers.

The borough with the highest number of free childhood care services in London is Enfield with 1676 centres, while Kensington and Chelsea scored the lowest with only 217 free childcare places.

Among the ELL boroughs Croydon has 1039 free childcare centres followed by Hackney with 968, Lewisham 832 and Tower Hamlets 774. Croydon is the largest borough in London.

Mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman said: “I would urge parents to find out if their child is eligible to take advantage of this excellent childcare offer. It could make a real difference to children’s education successes later in life.”

London’s 2012 Poverty Profile showed that 2.1 million people in London live in poverty, which is 28 per cent of the capital’s population.