Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) children and (b) families accessing the 30-hours free childcare scheme in (i) East Hampshire constituency, (ii) Hampshire local authority area and (iii) England in each year since its inception.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The number of children benefiting from 30-hours free childcare in Hampshire local authority and England are shown in the table below. Data is not published at parliamentary consistency level. The Department does not hold data on the number of families accessing 30-hours free childcare.
Number of children benefiting from extended funded early education 2018-2019 Hampshire local authority and England
| 2018 | 2019 |
Hampshire | 8,380 | 9,370 |
England | 296,920 | 328,130 |
Source: Early Years Census (EYC), School Census (SC), and School Level Annual School Census (SLASC)
(1) Count of children aged 3 and 4 at 31 December in the previous calendar year. In September 2017, the government doubled the funded early education entitlement for 3- and 4-year-olds from working families who meet the eligibility criteria to 30 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year (or 1,140 hours a year over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year). This is referred to as the extended funded early education entitlement.
(2) Any child attending more than one provider will have only been counted once.
(3) Includes general hospital schools and excludes pupil referral units.