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<p>The Department for Education have taken a number of actions as part of the Government’s
plan to increase the supply and affordability of childcare.</p><p> </p><p>The Department
has extended free early learning places to around 260,000 two-year-olds from September
2014. Low income working parents can already benefit from support through the childcare
element of working tax credit. Once Universal Credit is introduced this will rise
to 85% of costs. From autumn 2015 almost 2 million families could benefit from a new
tax free childcare scheme, worth up to £2,000 per child which will expand support
for affordable childcare and stimulate demand. We are investing £50 million through
a new Early Years Pupil Premium to support the early education of disadvantaged children.</p><p>
</p><p>Our reforms to the role of local authorities have reduced unnecessary bureaucracy
and improved consistency in accessing Government funding. All providers judged ‘good’
and ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted and providers newly registered with Ofsted are guaranteed
early education funding making it easier for existing providers to expand their business
and new providers to enter the market.</p><p> </p><p>We have relaxed planning rules
so that non-domestic early years childcare providers can deliver additional and high
quality places to meet increasing demand allowing premises previously used for offices,
hotels, non-residential institutions, and leisure and assembly purposes to be able
to change use to nurseries. We are exploring local authorities’ use of their discretionary
rate relief powers to support business rates costs falling to childcare providers.</p><p>We
have brought forward legislation to enable providers to register multiple premises
in a single registration process so, for example, a nursery chain can notify Ofsted
of its intention to open a number of new settings in a single registration process.</p><p>
</p><p>We have also brought forward legislation to remove the requirement for schools
to register separately with Ofsted to take two-year-olds and are supporting partnership
working between schools and private and voluntary providers.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We
know that high-quality childcare has a powerful impact on children’s outcomes, particularly
the most disadvantaged children. That is why we are driving up standards through a
stronger inspection framework, and focusing Local Authority support on weaker providers
and improving the skills and status of the workforce.</p>
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