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1085847

	registered interest
	date	11/03/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	What recent progress his Department has made on helping families to access childcare.
	tabling member constituency	Sittingbourne and Sheppey
	tabling member printed	Gordon Henderson
	uin	909697
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/03/2019 answer text <p>By 2020 this government will be spending £6 billion on supporting families with childcare. All 3 and 4 year olds, and the most disadvantaged 2 year olds, can access 15 hours a week of early education. From September 2017, this government doubled the childcare entitlement for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours a week.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that parents’ working patterns vary significantly and want to ensure that the free entitlements deliver childcare to meet their needs, as well as being high quality early education to support the development needs of children. We are also encouraging partnerships between providers to support flexible provision.</p><p> </p><p>In particular, we want 30 hours to continue to build on the flexible provision that we were already seeing across the country with the universal 15 hours. All the free entitlements can be “stretched” by taking fewer hours per week over up to 52 weeks of the year to cover term-time and the school holidays, for example 23 hours for 48 weeks of the year, and free places can be delivered at weekends.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 11/03/2019 17:01:50 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4050 label Biography information for Gordon Henderson

1077683

	registered interest
	date	26/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the article entitled UK free childcare funding woes forcing some providers out of business, published by the Financial Times on 28 April 2018, what assessment his Department has made of the accuracy of reports that the 30 hours’ free childcare for working parents of three and four year olds is underfunded; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the level of Government funding provided for that childcare on the fees charged by providers to parents of younger children.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	226097
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/03/2019 answer text <p>We will be spending around £6 billion on childcare support in 2019-20 - a record amount. That will include funding for our early education entitlements, on which we plan to spend around £3.5 billion this year alone.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities receive funding from central government for delivering the free early years entitlements to 3 and 4 year olds through the dedicated schools grant. Our provisional allocations to local authorities for 2018-19 can be found here:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities are responsible for setting the funding rates for their early years providers in consultation with their schools forum. Data from local authority planned expenditure for 2018-19 is publicly available. The data, as reported by local authorities, is available at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure-2018-to-2019-financial-year" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure-2018-to-2019-financial-year</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The government recognises the need to keep the evidence base on costs and charges up to date. The mean hourly fee charged by providers in England in Spring 2018 was estimated to be £5.02 for children under age 2, £5.01 for children aged 2 and £4.92 for 3 and 4 year old preschool children. Details can be found at the following link:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2018</a>.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to monitor the provider market closely through a range of regular and one-off research projects which provide insight into various aspects of the provider market.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi grouped question UIN 226095 question first answered 04/03/2019 13:31:18 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1010578

	registered interest
	date	20/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to findings of his Department's Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers, published 1 November 2018, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the loss of 8,800 childcare providers since 2016; and what steps his Department is taking to prevent further decreases in the number of childcare providers.
	tabling member constituency	Hampstead and Kilburn
	tabling member printed	Tulip Siddiq
	uin	193505
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/11/2018 answer text <p>Whilst the 2018 Childcare and Early Years Provider survey has shown a decrease in the number of providers since 2016, this has not impacted on parents being able to find a childcare place and, with the introduction of 30 hours, we had no reported sufficiency issues. Ofsted also publishes census data on the actual number of providers entering and leaving the market. Their latest published data based on registrations at 31 August 2018, confirms there is a downward trend in the number of providers registered with them, which primarily relates to childminders leaving the Early Years Register. Despite this, Ofsted’s official statistics confirm that the overall number of childcare places available has remained broadly stable since August 2012. They also show a small rise in the number of group-based providers in the most recent statistical period between 31 March 2018 and 31 August 2018. This information is available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-august-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-august-2018</a>.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 28/11/2018 16:40:46 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4518 label Biography information for Tulip Siddiq

1048022

	registered interest
	date	25/01/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made and assessment of the potential merits of introducing a requirement for the workforce in (a) private, (b) voluntary and (b) independent childcare settings to contain at least one graduate early years' teacher.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	212614
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/01/2019 answer text <p>The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework is mandatory for all early years providers in England. It sets out the staffing requirements for early years settings, including ratios and qualifications. There are no plans to change the staffing requirements under the EYFS framework.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 30/01/2019 15:16:35 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1023350

	registered interest
	date	11/12/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of (a) the cost to the public purse of increasing free childcare provision to all two year old and younger children, and (b) the economic effect of increasing free childcare provision.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
	tabling member printed	Darren Jones
	uin	201277
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/12/2018 answer text <p>The government has no plans to extend the early learning for two-year-olds programme. However, the government does have a range of offers available to support parents with care for children under the age of 12 (or children with disabilities until the age of 17). The government is already supporting working parents of two-year-olds with middle or higher incomes. We have also introduced Tax-Free Childcare, which will be available to around 1.5 million households to help pay for childcare costs. Parents can also claim up to 85% of their childcare costs through Universal Credit.</p><p> </p><p>In September 2017, the government introduced 30 hours free childcare for working parents, which gave parents who qualified an additional 15 hours a week of free childcare.</p><p> </p><p>In September 2018, the department published an independent year one evaluation of 30 hours[1]. The evaluation showed that 30 hours is making a real difference to family finances with the majority of parents reporting that they had more money to spend (78%).</p><p>Over a quarter of mothers said, they had increased their hours and more than one in ten (15%) stated they would not be working without the extended hours. These effects were stronger for lower income families.</p><p> </p><p>The study also showed that over half (51%) of providers increased staff hours or number of staff to deliver extended hours.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>[1]<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629460/Evaluation_of_early_implementation_of_30_hours_free_childcare_.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629460/Evaluation_of_early_implementation_of_30_hours_free_childcare_.pdf</a></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 17/12/2018 15:19:23 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4621 label Biography information for Darren Jones

993584

	registered interest
	date	23/10/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department has made available for families that have a child eligible for 30 hours of free childcare but mistakenly do not apply for an eligibility code.
	tabling member constituency	High Peak
	tabling member printed	Ruth George
	uin	182820
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/10/2018 answer text <p>The government is committed to ensuring parents have access to high-quality affordable childcare. The termly deadline for the 30 hours offer has been made clear to local authorities, providers and parents, and the department expects parents to adhere to these deadlines to ensure they are able to access a 30 hours place for their child.</p><p> </p><p>The government has invested in strong and clear communications on the 30 hours offer, including a cross government website, Childcare Choices, which clearly sets out how and when a parent can access a place: <a href="http://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk" target="_blank">www.childcarechoices.gov.uk</a>. The department recognises that some applications may be delayed in the childcare service, that is why we have put in place a 14-day discretionary period for those parents who applied in time but received a code after the deadline, through no fault of their own.</p><p> </p><p>Parents who are eligible for 30 hours of free childcare but miss the termly deadline will continue to remain eligible for the universal 15 hour per week early education entitlement before they can access a 30 hours place the following term. They can also take advantage of Tax-Free Childcare which was introduced earlier this year.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 26/10/2018 13:21:44 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George

1064698

	registered interest
	date	21/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) improve affordability and (b) reduce complexity for parents to access childcare support for people in low-income families.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	224323
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/02/2019 answer text <p>The government provides significant support to help families with childcare affordability, including:</p><ul><li>15 hours of free childcare a week for all 3 and 4-year-olds, worth around £2,500 a year on average.</li><li>15 hours of free childcare a week for disadvantaged 2-year olds, i.e. all those families in receipt of Universal Credit (UC), with an annual net earned income equivalent to or less than £15,400; families in receipt of benefits that currently qualify them for free school meals; those receiving working tax credits (with an annual gross household income of no more than £16,190); and children entitled to certain benefits or support for a disability or special educational need, looked-after children and certain children who have been in care, including those who have been adopted.</li><li>30 hours of free childcare a week, for working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds. 30 hours is available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage or living wage. This also includes self-employed parents.</li><li>Childcare vouchers provided through some employers, allowing parents to save money by paying for childcare from their pre-tax salary.</li><li>Help with up to 70% of childcare costs for people on low incomes through working tax credits, which in April 2016 increased to 85% through UC, subject to a monthly limit of £646 for one child or £1108 for 2 or more children.</li><li>Tax-free childcare, for which 1.5 million families who have childcare costs will be eligible. For every £8 parents pay into an online account, the government will pay £2 – up to a maximum contribution of £2,000 per child each year, for children aged under 12. Parents of disabled children will receive extra support (worth up to £4,000 per child, each year and until their child is 17).</li></ul><p>To reduce complexity, the government has introduced a childcare calculator, which parents can use to identify which of the childcare offers they may be entitled to. There is also the childcare choices and GOV.UK websites, which provides detailed information about all of the government’s childcare offers and how parents can apply. Local authorities also have a statutory duty to provide parents with information, advice and guidance on their websites about how these childcare offers can be accessed locally.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 26/02/2019 17:20:53 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1078636

	registered interest
	date	27/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to make childcare more accessible in North Herefordshire.
	tabling member constituency	North Herefordshire
	tabling member printed	Bill Wiggin
	uin	226594
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2019 answer text <p>The government provides the following significant childcare support to parents and carers:</p><ul><li>15 hours of free childcare a week for all 3 and 4-year-olds, worth around £2,500 a year on average.</li><li>15 hours of free childcare a week for disadvantaged 2-year olds, i.e. all those families in receipt of Universal Credit, with an annual net earned income equivalent to or less than £15,400; families in receipt of benefits that currently qualify them for free school meals; those receiving working tax credits (with an annual gross household income of no more than £16,190); and children entitled to certain benefits or support for a disability or special educational need, looked-after children and certain children who have been in care, including those who’ve been adopted.</li><li>30 hours of free childcare a week, for working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds. 30 hours is available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage or living wage. This also includes self-employed parents.</li><li>Childcare vouchers provided through some employers, allowing parents to save money by paying for childcare from their pre-tax salary.</li><li>Help with up to 70% of childcare costs for people on low incomes through working tax credits, which in April 2016 increased to 85% through Universal Credit, subject to a monthly limit of £646 for one child or £1108 for two or more children.</li><li>Tax-Free Childcare, for which 1.5 million families who have childcare costs will be eligible. For every £8 parents pay into an online account, the government will pay £2 – up to a maximum contribution of £2,000 per child each year, for children aged under 12. Parents of disabled children will receive extra support (worth up to £4,000 per child, each year and until their child is 17).</li></ul><p>It is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that every child that is eligible for the 15 and 30-hours free childcare entitlement is able to access a place. Local authorities receive the funding from central government in order to provide these places, and in turn, pass the funding they receive on to the front-line providers of childcare service. Local authorities also have a statutory duty to provide parents with information, advice and guidance on their websites about how these childcare offers can be accessed locally.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 06/03/2019 17:38:01 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	1428 label Biography information for Sir Bill Wiggin

1077632

	registered interest
	date	26/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what records his Department holds on the socio-economic background of those claiming free childcare for three and four-year-olds.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	226096
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/03/2019 answer text <p>The number of 3 and 4 year old children benefitting from universal funded early education in receipt of early years pupil premium (EYPP) is published in table 20 of the 'Provision for children under 5 years of age' statistical release: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The EYPP gives childcare providers additional funding to support disadvantaged 3 and 4-year-old children. 3 and 4-year-olds will be eligible for EYPP if the child receives the universal 15 hours funded early education and their family are in receipt of specified benefits or the child is looked-after by a local authority or has left care.</p><p> </p><p>The number of 3 and 4 year old children benefitting from extended funded early education is published in table 3LA of the 'Provision for children under 5 years of age' statistical release: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Eligibility for the extended funded early education is based on parental income. The additional 15 hours is available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns the equivalent of a weekly minimum of 16 hours at national minimum wage or national living wage, and less than £100,000 per year. This also includes self-employed parents and parents on zero-hour contracts. The government has made provisions to ensure that parents in certain circumstances will be regarded as being in work. This includes couple families where one parent is in receipt of benefits relating to caring responsibilities or their disability.</p><p> </p><p>The department also gathers information about the demographic characteristics of parents using childcare in the 'Childcare and early years survey of parents': <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2018</a>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 04/03/2019 16:36:02 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1037184

	registered interest
	date	07/01/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the take-up of funded childcare for (a) two year olds and (b) three year olds among (i) disadvantaged and (ii) non-disadvantaged households in Nottinghamshire.
	tabling member constituency	Ashfield
	tabling member printed	Gloria De Piero
	uin	205881
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2019 answer text <p>​The department does not hold data that breaks down take-up of the childcare entitlements by disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged households.</p><p>Disadvantaged 2 year olds are eligible for 15 hours a week (over 38 weeks of the year) of free early education if they meet the criteria set out at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-2-year-olds?step-by-step-nav=f237ec8e-e82c-4ffa-8fba-2a88a739783b" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-2-year-olds?step-by-step-nav=f237ec8e-e82c-4ffa-8fba-2a88a739783b</a>. As of January 2018, there were 2,080 2 year olds accessing this entitlement in Nottinghamshire, 72% of those eligible which is in line with the national average for take up of this entitlement.</p><p>All 3 and 4 year olds are also eligible for 15 hours a week (over 38 weeks of the year) of free early education. As of January 2018, 9,060 3 year olds in Nottinghamshire were accessing the universal offer. This is 100% of 3 year olds and higher than the national average for 3 year old take-up, which is 92%.</p><p>​Since September 2017, working parents of 3 and 4 year olds are entitled to 30 hours free childcare a week (over 38 weeks of the year), supporting a wide-range of parents to enter work or increase their work hours. In the first year of delivery, over 340,000 children in England benefited from a 30 hours childcare place, with over 6185 children accessing this entitlement in Nottinghamshire.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 10/01/2019 17:08:52 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	3915 label Biography information for Gloria De Piero