Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authorities paid childcare and early education settings late for funded hours provided during the September term.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The department has made clear, in A4.13 and A4.14 of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities, that local authorities should pay all providers, particularly childminders, monthly and are expected to do so from September 2018. However, if a provider requests and the local authority agree an existing alternative sustainable method of payment may be continued. We have also stated in the statutory guidance that local authorities should sign up to the prompt payment code which has been produced by the Institute of Credit Management. The code is available to view here: http://www.promptpaymentcode.org.uk/.

The Early education and childcare - Statutory guidance for local authorities is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2.