Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of families who are in work but unable to access the 30-hour early education entitlement for three and four year-olds.

All three and four-year-olds are eligible for 15 hours of free early education, regardless of parental income or working status.

Families are entitled to 30 hours free childcare if the sole parent in a single parent family, or both parents in a two-parent household, are working at least 16 hours a week at national minimum wage or living wage, but earns under £100,000 per year. Approximately 72% of eligible families were registered to take up a 30 hours free childcare place in January 2021.

The number of children eligible for 30 hours changes each year due to changing cohort size and parental employment changes. An estimated 460,000 children may have been eligible in January 2021, although this estimate does not account for the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on parental employment.

In 2019, the childcare and early years survey of parents found that of those not taking up the 30 hour entitlement offer, 52% gave reasons relating to eligibility, such as being unable to meet the income thresholds by either working too little or earning above £100,000 per year. The remaining 48% gave reasons unrelated to eligibility, mostly relating to not requiring the free childcare. However, 7% of parents surveyed said their provider did not offer the 30 hours of free childcare. Further statistics from the survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2019.