Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any geographical disparities in the availability of funded childcare places; and what steps they are taking to target support towards single parents living in areas where a lack of provision restricts the ability to enter or progress in employment.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2026/27, we expect to provide over £9.5 billion for the early years entitlements, more than doubling annual public investment in the early years sector compared to 2023/24, as we have successfully rolled out the expansion of government-funded childcare for all working parents.
We have announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to help ensure more children can access quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life. The first phase of the programme is creating up to 6,000 new nursery places, with schools reporting over 5,000 having been made available from September 2025.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Through our Best Start in Life strategy we will improve access to early years education and childcare, particularly for low-income families and those with additional needs. Parents may also be eligible for childcare support through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit Childcare.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to identify any additional charges associated with accessing funded childcare; and what steps they are taking to ensure that single parents are not deterred from taking up entitlements for cost reasons.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department has surveyed providers offering entitlements places and the parents accessing them to understand how the entitlements are being delivered to parents. This includes the use of additional extras and charges associated with entitlement hours.
Government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare. The 15 or 30 hours must be able to be accessed free of charge to parents. There must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours. Government funding is not intended to cover the cost of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.
A High Court judgment reaffirmed this position and the department subsequently updated its statutory guidance for local authorities last year on the entitlements to provide clarity on the matter for local authorities, providers and parents.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve recruitment and retention in the early years’ workforce; and what assessment they have made of any contribution that stable staffing makes to reliable and consistent childcare for single parents.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Best Start in Life Strategy lays the foundation for long-term improvements to recruitment and retention in the early years sector. Initiatives to improve recruitment and retention include the ‘Do something BIG’ recruitment campaign, financial incentives, a new Early Years teacher degree apprenticeship, an assessment-only route for experienced staff to achieve a Level 3 qualification, and operational flexibilities for childminders, including a grant to help with start-up costs.
The department does not hold data on the impact of stable staffing on reliable and consistent childcare for single parents. However, we want all children, regardless of background, to be able to access high quality early education and childcare. The workforce has grown by 18,200 staff to deliver the expanded childcare entitlement and we are committed to increasing the take up of the 15 hour entitlements to ensure that disadvantaged children are benefitting from early education and improved outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they hold any evidence on the reasons why eligible single parents may find it hard to access funded childcare entitlements; if so, whether they will publish it; and what steps they are taking to reduce barriers to such access.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold evidence on the reasons why eligible single parents may find it hard to access funded childcare entitlements. However, take-up of entitlements continues to be monitored.
We continue to look across the early education and childcare support provided by different parts of government to identify ways to make it simpler for providers and parents, improve access and increase the overall impact of government spending on children and families.
Through our Best Start in Life strategy we will improve access to early years education and childcare, particularly for low-income families and those with additional needs. Parents may also be eligible for childcare support through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit childcare.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which health inequalities experienced in early childhood contribute to long-term disparities in physical and mental health outcomes.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. We know that a child’s early experiences shape their lifelong physical, emotional, and social development. Inequalities, such as poverty, can have a long-lasting impact on children’s health. For example, childhood obesity is strongly linked to deprivation and an increased risk of obesity in later life. Research suggests that any exposure to poverty during childhood is associated with worse physical and mental health in adolescence.
The 10-Year Health Plan, Child Poverty Strategy, and Best Start in Life Strategy all set out the action we are taking to raise the healthiest generation of children ever and reduce long-term health inequalities. This includes our supervised toothbrushing programme for three-to-five-year-olds in deprived areas, increasing the weekly value of Healthy Start by 10%, and over £500 million to roll out Best Start Family Hubs to every local authority.
We are committed to strengthening the evidence on children’s health and its lifelong impacts. We have commissioned research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research to deepen our understanding of early-years risk factors and inequalities, which is due to report in 2027/28.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how access to GP and primary care services differs between areas of high and low deprivation; and what steps they are taking to address unequal access and capacity.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
General practices (GPs) serving more deprived areas receive on average 9.8% less funding per needs adjusted patient than those in less deprived communities, despite having greater health needs and significantly higher patient-to-GP ratios.
We recognise the importance of ensuring funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country. This is why we are currently reviewing the way GP funding is allocated across England, via the Carr-Hill formula. The review will look at how health needs are reflected in the distribution of funding through the GP Contract.
To further improve access and capacity, we have invested £1.1 billion in GPs, and £160 million of this has been to expand the GP workforce, by recruiting 2,000 more GPs since October 2024.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to implement a national strategy to support local decision-makers in adopting measures to reduce health inequalities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom faces significant health inequalities, with healthy life expectancy varying widely across and between communities. To tackle the gap in healthy life expectancy, health inequalities will be a golden thread running through work across the Department and across the Government, with addressing health inequalities embedded in all policies.
The Government is driving its health inequalities strategy through its missions, and in particular, the Health Mission. Our Health Mission, in England, as set out in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan, is focusing on addressing the social determinants of health, in a strategic way, with the goal of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions.
This includes a long-term vision to reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future, to ensure that the NHS is there for anyone who needs it, whenever they need it. By tackling the underlying drivers of ill-health, the Government will take a united, mission-led approach to addressing inequalities.
We will distribute NHS funding more equally locally, so that it is better aligned with local health needs. We recognise the additional complexity of delivering care in communities with high levels of ill health and understand the importance of ensuring funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country.
We will also establish a neighbourhood health centre in every community, beginning with places where healthy life expectancy is lowest. Neighbourhood health centres will co-locate NHS, local authority, and voluntary sector services, to help create an offer that meets population needs holistically.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom faces significant health inequalities, with healthy life expectancy varying widely across and between communities. To tackle the gap in healthy life expectancy, health inequalities will be a golden thread running through work across the Department and across the Government, with addressing health inequalities embedded in all policies.
The Government is driving its health inequalities strategy through its missions, and in particular, the Health Mission. Our Health Mission, in England, as set out in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan, is focusing on addressing the social determinants of health, in a strategic way, with the goal of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions.
This includes a long-term vision to reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future, to ensure that the NHS is there for anyone who needs it, whenever they need it. By tackling the underlying drivers of ill-health, the Government will take a united, mission-led approach to addressing inequalities.
We will distribute NHS funding more equally locally, so that it is better aligned with local health needs. We recognise the additional complexity of delivering care in communities with high levels of ill health and understand the importance of ensuring funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country.
We will also establish a neighbourhood health centre in every community, beginning with places where healthy life expectancy is lowest. Neighbourhood health centres will co-locate NHS, local authority, and voluntary sector services, to help create an offer that meets population needs holistically.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans for the expansion of Marmot Places throughout the United Kingdom.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to addressing the United Kingdom’s stark health inequalities by tackling the social determinants of health, which includes halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England.
We therefore welcome the ongoing initiative shown by local areas towards this end, including by those seeking designation as Marmot Places, with support from the Institute of Health Equity. However, this is a matter for local decision making and collaboration between the relevant partner agencies.
Arrangements in relation to support for Marmot Places in the rest of the UK are a matter for the respective devolved administrations.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment the Child Poverty Taskforce has made of the potential benefits of statutory child poverty reduction targets.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Taskforce continues its urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy and is exploring all available levers across government to deliver an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, as part of a 10-year Strategy for lasting change.
As set out in the publication of 23 October ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’, the Taskforce is exploring a range of metrics and will make decisions alongside the publication of the strategy. This work will be guided by the leading, and internationally recognised, measure of poverty - Relative Poverty After Housing Costs (the proportion of families with below 60% of the median income after housing costs are deducted).
Our metrics must also reflect the experience of poverty in households across the UK and the urgent need to focus on those children experiencing the most severe and acute forms of poverty. The Taskforce will consider how best to measure this as the strategy develops, including through our work on the material deprivation measure following the recent review of the material deprivation survey questions carried out by the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics and Political Science.