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1487400

registered interest
date	07/07/2022
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, pursuant to the Answer of 5 July 2022 to Question 25945 on Children: Day Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of increasing childcare ratios on levels of childcare staff (a) recruitment and (b) retention.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	32585
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/07/2022 answer text <p>On 4 July 2022, the government published its consultation on moving to the Scottish ratios for two-year-olds, from a ratio of 1:4 (one adult to four children) to 1:5 (one adult to five children). Alongside this, the department is running a bespoke survey of providers to help us understand how the proposed changes to staff to child ratios in early years settings might affect provision, including staff recruitment and retention. The results of this survey will be published.</p><p>This survey and responses to the consultation will inform final policy decisions and the government’s response to the consultation in the autumn, in which final policy decisions will be set out.</p><p>The department is committed to providing safe, high-quality early years provision for children. Throughout this consultation process, the department will engage fully with the sector and parents and carers.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bassetlaw answering member printed Brendan Clarke-Smith question first answered 14/07/2022 12:24:10 answering member 4756 label Biography information for Brendan Clarke-Smith
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1487427

registered interest
date	07/07/2022
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, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2022 to Question 25946 on Children: Day Care and her Majesty’s Chief Inspector’s response, what assessment he has made of the impact of nursery and childcare provider closures on the (a) availability and (b) affordability of childcare by region.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	32593
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2022 answer text <p>The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare. Ofsted publishes the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register. This currently shows that the number of places has remained broadly stable since August 2015. Both the national and regional data can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-march-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-march-2022</a>.</p><p>Officials from the department are in regular contact with local authority Early Years Leads in England to monitor delivery of the department’s free early education entitlements, including sufficiency of places. All 152 local authorities report that they are fulfilling their statutory duty to secure sufficient childcare for working parents, and children eligible for early education entitlements. Where localised sufficiency challenges have been identified, we are assured that local authorities have plans in place to mitigate these.</p><p>According to findings from the 2021 Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers, 7 in 10 of group-based providers reported having spare places in their full-day provision. Almost half of childminders, 49%, reported having spare capacity on average across the week.</p><p>All children aged three and four can access 15 hours of free childcare a week. The department has doubled this for three and four-year-olds in families where parents work, saving them over £6,000 a year. In the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, the department announced an investment in additional funding for the early years entitlements, worth £160 million in 2022/23, £180 million in 2023/24, and £170 million in 2024/25, compared to the 2021/22 financial year. This is for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers for the government’s free childcare entitlement offers and reflects cost pressures and changes in the number of eligible children anticipated at the time of the Spending Review.</p> answering member constituency Bassetlaw answering member printed Brendan Clarke-Smith question first answered 21/07/2022 18:09:18 answering member 4756 label Biography information for Brendan Clarke-Smith
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1486654

registered interest
date	05/07/2022
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 is taking to ensure that childcare is (a) affordable and (b) accessible.
tabling member constituency	Slough
tabling member printed	Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi
uin	31209
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/07/2022 answer text <p>The government is committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare. That is why we have spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past three years on early education entitlements.</p><p> </p><p>On 4 July, the government announced further measures to increase take-up of childcare support and reduce the costs and bureaucracy facing providers. We have also announced a new £1.2 million campaign to make sure that every parent knows about the government-funded support for which they are eligible.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bassetlaw answering member printed Brendan Clarke-Smith question first answered 13/07/2022 16:18:35 answering member 4756 label Biography information for Brendan Clarke-Smith
tabling member	4638 label Biography information for Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

1484397

registered interest
date	28/06/2022
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, how many nurseries and childcare settings closed in England in each year since 2018, by local authority.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	26816
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/07/2022 answer text <p>This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.</p> answering member constituency Bassetlaw answering member printed Brendan Clarke-Smith question first answered 14/07/2022 11:33:24 answering member 4756 label Biography information for Brendan Clarke-Smith
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1484398

registered interest
date	28/06/2022
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 estimate he has made of the number of available childcare places in England by local authority.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	26817
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/07/2022 answer text <p>The department does not hold figures on the number of nursery school places available, however we continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bassetlaw answering member printed Brendan Clarke-Smith question first answered 14/07/2022 11:19:19 answering member 4756 label Biography information for Brendan Clarke-Smith
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1483672

registered interest
date	27/06/2022
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 assessment he has made of the potential impact of increasing childcare ratios on levels of childcare staff (a) recruitment and (b) retention.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	25945
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/07/2022 answer text <p>In the summer, the department will be consulting on moving to the Scottish ratios for two-year-olds, from a ratio of 1:4 (one adult to four children) to 1:5 (one adult to five children). Alongside this, the department is also considering how we can provide greater flexibility within ratios for childminders.</p><p> </p><p>Our priority continues to be to provide safe, high quality early years provision for our youngest children, and throughout this consultation process we will engage fully with the sector and parents and carers on this proposed change.</p><p> </p><p>Responses from this consultation will help to build the evidence base, including on the impact that changing childcare ratios may have on staff recruitment and retention.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 05/07/2022 12:18:10 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1483673

registered interest
date	27/06/2022
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, how many (a) nurseries and (b) childcare settings have closed in each region of England in each year since 2018.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	25946
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2022 answer text <p>This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 30/06/2022 08:58:49 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1472144

registered interest
date	21/06/2022
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 he plans to issue guidance to nurseries, childminders and other early years education and childcare settings on making adjustments and improvements to (a) improve ventilation and (b) reduce the risk of covid-19 transmission in those settings during the 2022 summer holiday period.
tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
uin	22490
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2022 answer text <p>The department has provided CO<sub>2</sub> monitors to state-funded education providers, including early years providers. All state-funded early years providers were eligible, including includes private, voluntary, and independent providers, and childminders who work together in groups of four or more and are registered as operating childcare on domestic premises.</p><p> </p><p>The monitors enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working, helping balance the need for good ventilation with keeping rooms warm.</p><p> </p><p>Comprehensive advice on how to improve ventilation for education providers is available from the Health and Safety Executive.</p><p> </p><p>From 1 April 2022, the government has withdrawn most pieces of specific COVID-19 guidance for education and childcare providers, although public health and emergency planning guidance for education and childcare settings is still available. If providers suspect an outbreak of respiratory infection, such as COVID-19, they should review and reinforce the baseline infection prevention and control measures they already have in place.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 27/06/2022 11:29:27 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1471060

registered interest
date	16/06/2022
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 he will take steps to ensure that parents on zero-hours contracts have access to the full 30 hours per week of free childcare.
tabling member constituency	York Central
tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
uin	19643
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2022 answer text <p>In order to qualify for the 30 hours free childcare entitlements, parents need to be earning the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage. This ensures that self-employed parents or parents on zero-hour contracts are not excluded if they meet this income requirement.</p><p> </p><p>Every three months, parents need to reconfirm their eligibility to confirm that over the next three months, they expect to earn at least £1,976, or the National Living Wage for people over 23. If they have a partner, they will need to expect to earn at least this much too.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 24/06/2022 12:42:29 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1469118

registered interest
date	09/06/2022
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 is taking to help ensure that people are able to access childcare in the context of the rising cost of living.
tabling member constituency	York Central
tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
uin	15294
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2022 answer text <p>All children aged three and four can access 15 hours of free childcare a week and the department has doubled this for three and four-year-olds in families where parents work, saving them over £6,000 a year, alongside offering 15 hours of free childcare for two year olds from lower-income families. At the Spending Review, the department announced additional funding for these entitlements worth £160 million in the 2022/23 financial year, £180 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £170 million in the 2024/25 financial year, compared to the 2021/22 financial year.</p><p> </p><p>The department has introduced tax-free childcare, through which eligible families are entitled to up to £2,000 per child per year <em>for children aged 0-11, </em>and this goes up to £4,000 a year for disabled children <em>aged 0-16</em><em>.</em> Lower income families receiving Universal Credit can also claim back up to 85% of their childcare costs, which is significantly more generous than the previous benefits system and can be used alongside the free early education entitlements.</p><p> </p><p>Our Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme supported more than 600,000 children last summer with free holiday club places. The department is making more than £600 million available to local authorities in England over the next three years for the HAF programme, providing disadvantaged children and families with access to healthy food and enriching activities during the longer school holidays.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 17/06/2022 13:42:32 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell