Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2018 to Question 133821 on Children: Day Care, what advice his Department has provided to the Northern Ireland parties and the Northern Ireland Civil Service based on the experience of developing and administering the 30 hours free childcare policy in England.

HM Treasury, the Department for Education and HM Revenue & Customs met with the Northern Ireland Department of Education in June to discuss the experience of developing and administering the 30 hours free childcare policy in England.

To reflect concerns about the timing of the closure of childcare vouchers and the transition to Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) raised in the debate in April, the government took the decision to keep childcare vouchers open for a further six months until October. This has allowed more time for TFC to bed in, for awareness to increase and for families to understand the support they can receive under the scheme.

HM Revenue and Customs have been making improvements to the childcare service since it was launched in April 2017. Over the last four months they have provided over 99% of parents with an eligibility decision within 5 working days; reduced the number of problems that parents experienced, meaning that less than 1% of parents now see an error screen whilst applying or using their account; and made improvements to the customer experience. As a result, there has been an increase in parent satisfaction to over 80%.

The government has increased communications about TFC and the Childcare Choices website. As a result, we have seen a rise in the number of visitors to the sites. Communications activity will increase further in September at the start of the new school year, with a marketing campaign in the autumn to support take up of TFC.

All public-sector workers in the UK who meet the eligibility criteria for TFC will be able to claim government support for 20% of their childcare costs, up to an annual maximum of £2,000 for each child. We are working to make sure all parents, including those in the public sector, are aware of this support and how to access it. Ministers and officials have also met with interested stakeholders across the UK.