Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of how many additional (a) childcare places and (b) early years staff will be required to deliver the entitlements on childcare announced in the Spring Budget 2023; and if she will make a statement.

The department regularly surveys a representative sample of over 10,000 early years providers to gain insights into how they run their provision and the challenges they face. We also regularly survey over 6,000 parents to understand their usage of childcare.

The data collected through these surveys is used to inform our methodology and the uplift required to meet the pressures providers face, and to evaluate the impact this will have on early years settings, early years staff, and on the sufficiency of childcare.

The childcare and early years provider survey is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/childcare-and-early-years-provider-survey/2022.