Children: Day Care

(asked on 17th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment the Government has made of the regional disparities in funded childcare places in England.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 25th January 2018

On 19 December 2017, we published ’30 hours free childcare: autumn term 2017’ which showed for the first time the number of children in a 30 hours place.

This showed that, based on local authority returns to a voluntary survey, an estimated 202,800 children were in a 30 hours place. At a national level, this was 90% of the total number of codes generated. At a regional level this ranged from 85% in the South East to 97% in the North East.

This is the first term of delivering a new national programme and it is encouraging that no region has under 85% of children with a 30 hours code in a 30 hours place. We cannot account for a parents’ preference and behaviour which could, of course, vary across the country depending on individual circumstances.

Our new Early Years National Funding Formula includes an ‘Area Cost Adjustment’ to reflect the fact that the costs of delivering childcare vary between different local authority areas. We will monitor all 30 hours data over the first year of delivery to understand how the new policy is being delivered and identify any operational challenges.

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