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<p>At the 2015 Spending Review, the Government announced that we would provide £300
million for a significant uplift to the rate paid for the free childcare entitlements
for two-, three- and four-year-olds from 2017-18. Together with the funding announced
at last summer’s Budget, we will be investing over £1 billion more per year by 2019-20
to fund our commitments on the entitlements.</p><p> </p><p>The Childcare Act, which
provides the legal framework for the extended entitlement, received Royal Assent in
March. We also announced in February the eight early implementer local authorities
which will offer the extended free childcare entitlement from September 2016. This
means around 5,000 children will be able to benefit from 30 hours of high-quality
free childcare places a year earlier than planned.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is
also consulting on key elements of the operation and delivery of the extended free
entitlement. This includes how the entitlement will be delivered, and how it will
meet and be responsive to the needs of working parents. To date we have received over
1000 responses from a wide range of childcare providers, local authorities and provider
organisations. We will use these views to inform our thinking as we move to delivering
the 30 hours policy. The consultation is available at: <a href="https://consult.education.gov.uk/early-years-funding/childcare-free-entitlement"
target="_blank">https://consult.education.gov.uk/early-years-funding/childcare-free-entitlement</a></p>
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