Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the eligibility criteria will be for (a) 15 and (b) 30 hours of free childcare for children aged two to four in each year from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

The Department wants parents to have access to a range of affordable childcare, giving them increased flexibility in their working hours and helping children thrive in the crucial early years. We are spending around £3.5 billion on early education childcare entitlements in 2019-20 and my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer recently announced increases in hourly rates for our early education entitlements for 2020-21. In total, this Government is planning to spend more than £3.6 billion to support these entitlements in 2020-21.

The current eligibility criteria for (a) 15 and (b) 30 hours of free childcare for children aged two to four is the following:

Since September 2010, all three and four-year olds living in England have been entitled to 570 hours a year of funded early education over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year (which equates to 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year). This is referred to as the universal funded early education entitlement.

From September 2013, the entitlement to 15 hours of funded early education per week for 38 weeks of the year was extended to some two-year olds. Information regarding eligibility for free early education and childcare can be found at the following links: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ and https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-2-year-olds.

In September 2019 the Department extended the eligibility criteria for the free early education entitlement for the most disadvantaged two-year olds. Two-year old children in low income families are now able to take up a free place when their parent(s) have one of the following types of immigration status:

• Zambrano carer (derivative right to reside in the UK under European law as the primary carer of a British child or dependent adult)
• Leave to remain with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) granted on family or private life (Article 8) grounds
• ‘Appeal rights exhausted’ (ARE) asylum seeker receiving asylum support from the Home Office under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Parents who are Zambrano carers or who have leave to remain with NRPF, must also be able to demonstrate that they have a low income

The Government has no current plans to change the eligibility criteria of these entitlements.