Estelle Morris has announced a substantial expansion of childcare facilities to help families in the most disadvantaged areas of England.

The education secretary has set out details of a £40 million rise in education spending on three and four year olds. A further £10m boost is to come from the European Social Fund for the training of extra childcare workers.

Morris said: "These new places will make a real difference to children's lives and those of their parents in the most disadvantaged areas of the country and are central to the government's target to have created new places for 1.6 million children by 2004."

The Neighbourhood Nurseries package, first announced in December 2000 by then education secretary David Blunkett, aims to provide 45,000 extra nursery places in the equivalent of 900 nursery centres focussed on the most disadvantaged areas.

The cost of around £300 million will come from £200 million of government funding and up to £100 million in capital investment from the New Opportunities Fund of the National Lottery.

The areas targeted by the programme are the bottom 20 per cent of wards, and equivalent pockets of deprivation, shown on the Department for Local Government, Transport and Regions' "Index of Multiple Deprivation".

Morris, a former teacher, said she aimed to encourage more integrated services that meet the needs of parents and their children.

"This will help us meet our ambition that by March 2004 there should be a childcare place in the most disadvantaged areas for every lone parent entering employment," she said.

The announcement has been timed to coincide with the publication of statistics on the number of new childcare places since 1997. Up to March 2001 700,000 places had been created, which the government said would put it on track to meet its 2004 childcare target.