Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the reasons are for grandparents who are childminders to be ineligible to receive 30-funded hours of childcare for their grandchildren.

Childminders, including grandparents who are childminders, cannot receive early years funding, including the new 30 hours’ entitlement, for related children. This is set out in Sections 18(4) and 20 of the Childcare Act 2006: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/21/contents.

This long-standing position avoids creating an incentive for adults to register to become formal carers for related children they are already looking after on an informal basis.