Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) availability and (b) affordability of childcare for the parents of (i) seriously ill and (ii) disabled children.

The department knows that childcare is a key concern for parents, including those parents of seriously ill and disabled children, and that families and early years providers across the country are facing financial pressures. This is why the department has spent more than £20 billion over the past five years to support families with the cost of childcare.

The department does not hold specific data regarding availability and affordability of childcare for parents of children who are seriously ill and/or disabled. The department assesses the availability and affordability of childcare for parents more generally.

The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. Ofsted data currently shows that the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable since August 2015. Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England. If a local authority raises concerns about sufficiency issues, the department will support them with any specific requirements.

This Government has doubled the entitlement for working parents of three and four-year-olds to 30 hours and introduced 15 free hours a week for disadvantaged two-year-olds. This offer extends to two-year-old children in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and/or with an Education Health and Care plan are eligible for the 15 hours free childcare entitlement for two-year-olds. On top of this, working parents on Universal Credit may be eligible for help with up to 85% of their childcare costs through Universal Credit to support with the costs of childcare.

In Early Years, local authorities are required to establish a Special Educational Neel Inclusion Fund (SENIF) to provide additional top up funding to providers to improve outcomes for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). Funding for the SENIF can come from both the early years and high needs funding blocks of the dedicated schools grant. The National Funding Formula contains an additional needs element to take account of the number of three and four-year-old children with additional needs in an area.

The Disability Access Fund is now worth £800 per eligible child per year, increased from £615 last year. For the 2023/24 financial year, it will again be increased to at least £828 per eligible child per year. The Disability Access Fund was introduced to support disabled children’s access to the entitlements for three and four-year-olds. Providers receive at least £828 per eligible child per year from the 2023/24 financial year. The funds can be used to support providers in making reasonable adjustments to their settings and/or helping with building capacity, be that for the child in question, or for the benefit of children attending the setting.

The department will work with local authorities, providers, and stakeholders to establish whether changes to the SENIF and other associated elements of the wider current early years funding system are needed, to ensure early years SEND funding arrangements are appropriate and well-targeted to improve outcomes for all pre-school children with SEND, and to support the introduction of a national framework for bands and tariffs.