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<p>The department recognises that families and early years providers across the country
are facing financial pressures. This is why we have spent more than £20 billion over
the past five years to support families with the cost of childcare.</p><p>In the 2023
Spring Budget, my right hon Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced transformative
reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. By 2027/28, the government
will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion a year on free hours and early
education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the
largest ever investment in childcare in England.</p><p>This includes £204 million
this year, increasing to £288 million in 2024/25, for local authorities to increase
hourly rates paid to childcare providers, and then increasing year on year to meet
rising cost pressures.</p><p>This will include an average of 30% increase in the national
average 2 year old rate from September 2023 to around £8.</p><p>The department also
announced that we will launch a consultation on further measures to support reform
of the childcare market, to improve the childcare offer for parents. This will include
exploring further flexibilities for providers, growing and supporting the workforce,
allowing childminders more choice over how they operate and introducing a new, better
tailored childminder-specific Early Years Foundation Stage framework.</p><p>The department
is continuing to take action to maintain choice and availability for parents by attracting
more people to childminding, through a start-up grant fund of up to £7.2 million over
the next two years.</p><p>The government has announced a freeze to the business rates
multiplier in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This will support all ratepayers, including early
years businesses, and mean bills are 6% lower than without the freeze.</p><p>In the
2022 Spring Statement, the government increased the Employment Allowance from £4,000
to £5,000 to support smaller businesses by reducing their costs of employment. Businesses
who had employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) bills of £100,000 or less
in the previous tax year will be able to claim up to £5,000 off their employer NICs
bills. This means that 40% of all businesses will be unaffected by changes to employer
NICs.</p><p>The £18 billion Energy Bill Relief Scheme is supporting millions of businesses
with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor has made clear this will continue until
June 2023.</p><p>From April 2023 to March 2024 the introduction of the Energy Bills
Discount Scheme will provide non-domestic consumers, including early years and childcare
providers, with a unit discount on gas and electricity costs. The new scheme will
strike a balance between supporting businesses over the next 12 months and limiting
taxpayer’s exposure to volatile energy markets. This financial support provides long
term certainty for non-domestic consumers.</p><p>The key measure of sufficiency is
whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents
and children. Ofsted data currently shows that the number of places offered by providers
on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable since August 2015.</p><p>Under
Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring
that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents
in their area.</p><p>The department has regular contact with each local authority
in England regarding sufficiency of childcare and any issues local authorities are
facing.</p>
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