NEARLY £230,000 has been awarded to an Ipswich-based charity to improve childcare provision in the county.Suffolk ACRE is to receive three grants totalling £227,520 from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund out of school hours childcare programme, it is due to be announced tomorrow.

NEARLY £230,000 has been awarded to an Ipswich-based charity to improve childcare provision in the county.

Suffolk ACRE is to receive three grants totalling £227,520 from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund out of school hours childcare programme, it is due to be announced tomorrow.

The grants will be used to provide more than 100 before and after school childcare places, create 12 new clubs and improve existing clubs in Suffolk.

The grants are part of 28 awards from the fund to be awarded to projects in the region totalling £3.8 million, establishing 8,315 childcare places and creating more than 750 jobs across Suffolk, Norwich, Cambridgeshire and Essex.

Across the country more than £220 million has been awarded over the last four years through the fund.

Baroness Pitkeathley, chair of the fund, said: "Although it was not the first, nor the only source of funding for out of school hours childcare, the £220 million of lottery money being provided through the New Opportunities Fund programme represents the largest single investment in childcare to date.

"Our programme was launched in January 1999 and was intended to complement the National Childcare Strategy by creating thousands new childcare places by 2003.

"This announcement represents a further landmark in the work of creating the range of childcare places children and parents need and deserve," she added.

Suffolk ACRE is contracted by Suffolk County Council to help deliver childcare across the county for children aged up to 14.

The charity works with private businesses, playgroups, pre-schools, voluntary groups and charities.

Weblink: www.suffolkacre.ork.uk

www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk