HUNDREDS of disadvantaged toddlers across Southampton will soon receive free pre-school places.

Council bosses have approved plans to provide free places for 536 disadvantaged two-year-olds from across the city.

That is part of a wider scheme to provide 1,700 places across the city, and work to improve preschools and children’s centres across Southampton will begin this summer.

Under new Government guidelines the council must provide free places to 20 per cent of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds from September onwards.

And that figure will rise to 40 per cent from September 2014 onwards, meaning 1,700 youngsters in the city will be affected.

Now that the plans have been approved by the city Cabinet, £1.886m will be spent over the next two financial years on increasing the number of spaces at early years providers across Southampton.

Work will begin this summer on improvements to Oasis Pre-school, The Warren Centre and Newtown Adventure Playground to increase their size and facilities.

Those works are expected to be completed by September.

Eleven other preschools and centres will have improvement works carried out next year, including Freemantle Nursery, Bevois Town Community Preschool, Sinclair Nursery and Weston Shore Community Pre-school.

The council’s Cabinet member for children’s services, Cllr Sarah Bogle, said: “This is a significant investment in early years setting across the city, to ensure we meet the demand from both the rising birth rate and the requirement to provide free places for the most deprived two-year-olds in the city.

“This is positive for our communities and I hope it will help further towards raising educational attainment in the future.”