Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of raising the age limit for childcare support bubbles to include young teenagers.

The Government understands that sometimes working parents rely on informal childcare arrangements with friends and family. In local COVID alert level medium, friends and family can continue to provide childcare under the ‘rule of six’.

In areas that are in local COVID alert level high and local COVID alert level very high risk areas, households are no longer able to mix. However, families can form a ‘childcare bubble’, to enable them to continue with informal childcare arrangements for their young children, aged 13 and under.

The intention of childcare bubbles is to ensure families with young children who are not able to look after themselves for short periods of time can continue to use their informal childcare arrangements. The Government wants to balance the needs of families to continue to use informal childcare arrangements with the increased public health risks of inter-house mixing, including limiting opportunities for teenagers to mix together.