Sharon Hodgson
Main Page: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)Department Debates - View all Sharon Hodgson's debates with the Department for Education
(12 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Sarah Teather
As I have said, the change in hours should not have an impact on the child care element, because the hours remain the same in terms of the eligibility for the child care element of the tax credit. All local authorities have a duty to ensure that sufficient pre-school and after-school child care is available in their areas. However, we are monitoring this situation very closely and looking at capacity in disadvantaged areas, as we are rolling out a significant increase in the amount of early years education available for two-year-olds.
Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)
According to the National Day Nurseries Association insight report, 65% of nurseries reported decreased occupancy levels towards the end of 2011—when parents were feeling the impact of slashed child care tax credits—leaving more than one in 10 settings with occupancies of less than 50% and therefore at serious risk of closure or of having to increase prices for the remaining parents. As more than 1 million families are counting on losing child tax credit or working tax credit this month, what are the Government doing to ensure that all child care providers are not driven out of business by falling occupancies?
Sarah Teather
What has had the most impact, unfortunately, has been some people losing their jobs, which inevitably affects the demand for child care in the areas concerned. However, the most significant impact on the early years sector, and in particular the private providers, will come from the roll-out of the two-year-olds offer, which I mentioned a few moments ago. That amounts to a very substantial increase in the amount of money going through early years settings. A significant number of places will need to be created. There will be some areas that are under-occupied, of course, but there will also be very significant demand for places for two-years-olds in some settings, and many in the sector are seeing this as a huge opportunity.