There are no plans or targets in place to deliver Plaid Cymru's commitment to expand the offer of free Welsh language childcare, according to a nursery network dedicated to the language.

Catrin Edwards, chief executive of Mudiad Meithrin, said she was worried that many parents would choose English language childcare if provision in Welsh was not available locally to them.

On Thursday the Plaid-run Welsh government announced 19 councils will offer 12.5 hours of free childcare for all two-year-olds by the end of November.

It said that "expanding Welsh-medium childcare is an integral part of our plans to expand funded childcare".

Edwards said the government was "missing an opportunity" if it did not ensure that Welsh-medium childcare "increases significantly" when expanding the free childcare offer.

"We know that convenience is the main reason for choosing childcare," she said.

"Therefore, the provision of Welsh-language care must be convenient and there must be more Welsh-medium nurseries in every area."

Edwards said parents who were busy and had pressure to get to work could be influenced to put their children in English medium nurseries of Welsh language ones were further away.

"If you have to go past funded childcare that is English medium, how many times is that going to influence your decision in terms of where you put your child?," she said.

Figures show that 19% of two-year-old children received funded care at a Welsh-medium setting between April and August.

But the numbers vary significantly between authorities, from 100% in Anglesey, 94% in Gwynedd and 90% in Ceredigion, to 4% in Swansea, 3% in Flintshire and 0% in Monmouthshire.

The Welsh government hopes that the offer of 12.5 hours of childcare a week for 39 weeks a year will be available to all two-year-olds before the end of March - something the last Welsh Labour administration had originally promised but failed to deliver.

The intention is then to increase the offer to 20 hours a week for 48 weeks a year before expanding further to younger children, and eventually offering funded care for all children between the ages of nine months and four by 2030.

Edwards said she was calling for a specific plan with clear targets if the government wanted to increase significantly the numbers receiving Welsh-medium care before the end of this parliamentary term.

"There is a real risk, if we don't see the expansion of Welsh medium childcare on a faster scale than the English sector, then we are going to lose the opportunity with parents and new families and children to be introduced to the Welsh language very early on," she said.

Deputy First Minister Sioned Williams said expanding the full offer to 86% of local authorities was an "important milestone".

"When we came into power in May, only three local authorities offered funded childcare for every two-year-old. Just six months later, 19 local authorities will provide the offer by the end of this month, with the other three on track to do so by the end of March."

The Welsh government said that it had established a specific work stream within the expansion plans to increase the Welsh medium provision.

A spokesperson said: "We are determined to ensure that Welsh-medium childcare grows hand in hand with this expansion, giving children more opportunities to hear and use the Welsh language from their earliest years."