The government's early education funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week (for 38 weeks of the year) of free, high quality, flexible childcare for eligible 2, 3 and 4-year-olds. It is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.<\/p>
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However, pupils attending a local authority maintained, academy or free school nursery are entitled to free school meals: as long as they are either in full-time education or receive education both before and after lunch and meet the benefits-based free school meal eligibility criteria. Pupils attending a private nursery or pre-school are not entitled to free school meals.<\/p>
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The government also provides 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.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4113", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Stratford-on-Avon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Nadhim Zahawi"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-05-02", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-05-02T16:05:45.677Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "60"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Education"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Education"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-04-29", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Pre-school Education: School Meals"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide meals for children accessing (a) free childcare and (b) pre-school provision.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "true", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4243", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Dan Jarvis"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Barnsley Central"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Dan Jarvis"} ], "uin" : "248685"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }