Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support providers of childcare who find themselves in financial difficulties.

The department is making a record investment in childcare, by 2020 spending around £6 billion per year, investing £1 billion a year to deliver 30 hours of free childcare and increasing our hourly funding rates.

The department has awarded grants to the National Day Nurseries Association and the Professional Association of Childcare and Early Years to develop new business sustainability resources for childcare providers, which are available online at https://www.earlyyearsbusinesszone.org.uk/ and https://www.pacey.org.uk/business/ and has made a further package of support materials available, which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-business-sustainability.