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<p>The government prioritised the opening of early years settings in full because
of the clear benefits to children’s education and wellbeing, and to support working
parents. In July 2020, when the Pregnant Then Screwed survey was in the field from
the 16-18 of July, official data shows there were an estimated 43,000 settings open
with 417,000 children attending. This data is available here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/2020-week-29"
target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/2020-week-29</a>.</p><p>Since
then, we have continued to see more early years settings open, and attendance has
steadily increased over the course of the 2020 autumn term. As of 10 December 2020,
official data, also available via the above link, shows an estimated 55,000 early
year settings were open with 792,000 children in attendance. On a typical day in the
autumn term, we expect attendance to be 929,000, due to different and part-time patterns
of childcare during the week. We estimate that the 792,000 children attending early
years settings was approximately 85% of the usual daily level.</p><p>On 21 December
2020, I wrote to Directors of Children’s Services at local authorities, to remind
them of the statutory responsibilities shared between local authorities and the Secretary
of State for Education to ensure there is enough Early Years childcare for parents.
We are not aware of any local authority reporting a current sufficiency issue. However,
we anticipate that the role of local authorities in market stewardship through the
next year may prove significant in ensuring that the market is able to continue providing
free early education entitlements, and to meet the needs of parents.</p><p>We will
continue to both monitor sufficiency of childcare places through our regular ongoing
contact with early years departments in local authorities, and work in partnership
with local authorities and the sector to support working parents.</p><p> </p>
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