Local councils have agreed to provide pre-school daycare places to all children, not just those of working parents, according to social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher.

Councils have until 2021 to ensure there are enough places to provide at least two half days a week for all under-4s, whether or not their parents have a job.

Some 40,000 children are currently excluded from organised daycare because their parents do not work.

The expansion, which will be funded by the state, is necessary because ‘good childcare contributes to child development and a good start at primary school,’ Asscher said in a briefing to MPs.