Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children use the 30 hours free childcare scheme.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
We want parents to have access to a range of affordable childcare, giving them increased flexibility in their working hours and helping children thrive in the crucial early years. That is why the department is investing £3.5 billion in our early education offers this year alone. The cost of 30 hours free childcare is set in table 1, attached. The total for 2017-18 is due to rounding.
The number of children that have benefitted from 30 hours free childcare in each year is set out in table 2, attached.
In total, around 600,000 children aged 3 and 4 years old benefitted from a 30 hours place throughout the first 2 years of delivery.
We do not hold data on estimates of the number of parents that have benefitted from the 30 hours entitlement in England.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse was of the 30 hour free childcare scheme in England in the 2017-18 financial year.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
We want parents to have access to a range of affordable childcare, giving them increased flexibility in their working hours and helping children thrive in the crucial early years. That is why the department is investing £3.5 billion in our early education offers this year alone. The cost of 30 hours free childcare is set in table 1, attached. The total for 2017-18 is due to rounding.
The number of children that have benefitted from 30 hours free childcare in each year is set out in table 2, attached.
In total, around 600,000 children aged 3 and 4 years old benefitted from a 30 hours place throughout the first 2 years of delivery.
We do not hold data on estimates of the number of parents that have benefitted from the 30 hours entitlement in England.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people used the 30 hours free childcare scheme in England in (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
We want parents to have access to a range of affordable childcare, giving them increased flexibility in their working hours and helping children thrive in the crucial early years. That is why the department is investing £3.5 billion in our early education offers this year alone. The cost of 30 hours free childcare is set in table 1, attached. The total for 2017-18 is due to rounding.
The number of children that have benefitted from 30 hours free childcare in each year is set out in table 2, attached.
In total, around 600,000 children aged 3 and 4 years old benefitted from a 30 hours place throughout the first 2 years of delivery.
We do not hold data on estimates of the number of parents that have benefitted from the 30 hours entitlement in England.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse was of the 30 hour free childcare scheme in England in the 2018-19 financial year.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
We want parents to have access to a range of affordable childcare, giving them increased flexibility in their working hours and helping children thrive in the crucial early years. That is why the department is investing £3.5 billion in our early education offers this year alone. The cost of 30 hours free childcare is set in table 1, attached. The total for 2017-18 is due to rounding.
The number of children that have benefitted from 30 hours free childcare in each year is set out in table 2, attached.
In total, around 600,000 children aged 3 and 4 years old benefitted from a 30 hours place throughout the first 2 years of delivery.
We do not hold data on estimates of the number of parents that have benefitted from the 30 hours entitlement in England.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many parents use the 30 hours free childcare scheme.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
We want parents to have access to a range of affordable childcare, giving them increased flexibility in their working hours and helping children thrive in the crucial early years. That is why the department is investing £3.5 billion in our early education offers this year alone. The cost of 30 hours free childcare is set in table 1, attached. The total for 2017-18 is due to rounding.
The number of children that have benefitted from 30 hours free childcare in each year is set out in table 2, attached.
In total, around 600,000 children aged 3 and 4 years old benefitted from a 30 hours place throughout the first 2 years of delivery.
We do not hold data on estimates of the number of parents that have benefitted from the 30 hours entitlement in England.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to increase the number of hours of free childcare.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people used the 30 hours free childcare scheme in Scotland in (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The 30 hours childcare schemes are a devolved matter and the Department for Education has a remit for the 30 hours entitlement for England. Questions about schemes in Scotland and Wales should be referred to the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of trends in the level of staff turnover in nurseries in the last three years.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Employers in the early years sector are responsible for recruiting and setting the pay and conditions for their employees within the statutory requirements set by government (for example, national minimum wage).
We do not collect data on staff turnover, however wider data on workforce is included in the Provider Surveys:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-childcare-and-early-years.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the effect of the 30 hours free childcare scheme on educational performance in children.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The 30 hours entitlement is intended to support working families with access to high quality, affordable childcare. We are clear that the 30 hours entitlement aims to support working families with the cost of childcare, and to support parents back into work, or to work more hours should they wish to do so. Therefore, we have not made any assessment of the effect of the entitlement on educational performance.
The latest research in ‘Study of early education and development’ shows that cognitive and socio-emotional developmental benefits were seen to be associated with use of early education and care between ages 2 and age 4, however there is no clear optimal number of hours for a child to spend in early years provision. A link to the study can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/study-of-early-education-and-development-seed.
Access to early education is vital to ensuring all children to have the best start in life, which is why we provide 15 hours of free early education for all 3 and 4-year olds and the most disadvantaged 2-year olds. This is why we plan to spend around £3.5 billion on our early education entitlements this year alone.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse was of the 30 hour free childcare scheme in Scotland in the 2017-18 financial year.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The 30 hours childcare schemes are a devolved matter and the Department for Education has a remit for the 30 hours entitlement for England. Questions about schemes in Scotland and Wales should be referred to the devolved administrations.