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.
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 2018-19 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.
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 Wales 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, what the cost to the public purse was of the 30 hour free childcare scheme in Wales 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.
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 Wales in the 2018-19 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.
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 schools in England provide a breakfast club.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The department is investing up to £26 million into the National Schools Breakfast Programme, using funds from Soft Drinks Industry Levy revenues. A contract was awarded to Family Action in March 2018 and will run until March 2020. Family Action, in partnership with Magic Breakfast, have both been named as the leading charities responsible for running the Breakfast Club programme. Together they have set up or improved more than 1,700 breakfast clubs across the country.
The department’s breakfast club provision is one of a number of available programmes open to schools. Across England there are a number of independent schemes already in operation either run by schools themselves or in partnership with charities and organisations such as Kellogg’s and Greggs.
The department does not collect figures on the total number of breakfast clubs in operation outside of our programme.
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 weeks is the offering of 30 hours free childcare spread across the 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 for Education is investing £3.5 billion in our early education offers this year alone.
The 30 hours childcare entitlement provides an additional 570 hours of funded childcare to working parents of 3 and 4 year olds across the year. The 570 hours are in addition to the 570 hours already provided under the universal 15 hours free childcare entitlement. While many providers will offer 30 hours of funded childcare per week during term time (38 weeks of the year), all free entitlements can be ‘stretched’ by taking fewer hours per week over up to 52 weeks of the year to cover both term-time and the school holidays.
To ensure that parents can make informed decisions on their choice of childcare, the department’s statutory guidance for local authorities states that providers should publish a statement of how they deliver the free entitlements and any additional charges they impose for optional activities outside of the entitlement.