Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the evidential basis for requiring early years private, voluntary and independent providers that have restricted opening to children who are vulnerable or are cared for by critical workers to meet their statutory requirement to ensure safe early education and childcare during covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021 to not count (a) a child where the staff member who would be required to deliver the child’s place has been furloughed and (b) children who are temporarily not receiving their funded entitlements, when submitting their Early Years Census 2021 return; if he will make it his policy for funding entitlement to be adjusted to allow for those reporting exclusions; what steps he is taking to ensure that children are not disadvantaged by reduced local authority funding for early years provision in future as a result of the Early Years Census 2021 taking place during a pandemic; and if he will make a statement.

On 17 December 2020, the government announced a return to funding early years settings for the spring term on the basis of attendance, as measured by the January 2021 census. The early years census count has gone ahead as expected and the census guidance is unchanged. To support local authorities we have issued some technical advice on how that guidance can be applied this year.

In summary, children who are ill or self-isolating can be counted, as can those whose parents have temporarily withdrawn their children from open nurseries and childminders out of caution, and so long as the parent/guardian has not altered their parental declaration relating to expected hours with the provider.

Children should not be counted in the census where a setting has closed or restricted attendance, unless as a result of situations as set out in the supporting technical advice eg. staff sickness, COVID-19 isolation, staff shielding.

We will fund local authorities in the 2021 spring term based on their January 2021 census. If attendance rises after the census is taken, we will top-up councils to up to 85% of their January 2020 census level, where a local authority can provide evidence for increased attendance during the spring term. This will give local authorities additional financial confidence to pay providers for increasing attendance later in the spring term.

We continue to work with the early years sector to understand how they can best be supported to ensure that sufficient safe, appropriate and affordable childcare is available to those who need it now, and for all families who need it in the longer term.