Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the expanded free childcare hours offer announced in the Spring Budget 2023, HC 1183, published on 15 March 2023, what assessment she has made of the total number of (a) early years settings and (b) early years staff needed to deliver that offer.

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. This includes data on staff recruitment and retention. We also regularly survey over 6,000 parents to understand their usage of childcare.

The data collected through these surveys is used to inform the department’s 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. We will share further details of this in due course.

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. The childcare and early years parents survey is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2021.