Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to increase council funding for early years intervention.

The 2015 Spending Review made available more than £200 billion until 2020 for councils to deliver the local services their communities want to see, including children’s services.

In addition, by 2019-20 we will be spending around £6 billion on childcare support. This is more than any other government and this government support will make childcare more affordable and more accessible.

Furthermore, in our ambitious plan ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’ that the Department published in December 2017, we committed to a £100 million investment to help close the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers.

My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that the next spending review will be in 2019. This will, as normal, consider all elements of government spending, including local government funding and funding for early intervention.