Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to ensure adequate provision for early-years childcare for service families based in the UK in the same way that his Department does for provision of primary and secondary schools.

The publication of the UK Armed Forces Families Strategy 2022 to 2032 seeks to address the needs of modern, diverse, Service families. This includes work to ensure that families are able to access appropriate, enriching and safeguarded childcare for their children.

An early success has been the launch of the Wraparound Childcare scheme which provides funding support to eligible Service families who have children aged 4 – 11; typically around £3,400 per child, per academic year, although this amount will vary dependent on location, the type of provider and the number of hours claimed. As at March 2023 there were over 6,800 children making use of this scheme.

Working with colleagues across government and through the Ministry of Defence Local Authorities Partnership groups, Defence will continue to help to identify areas where provision does not meet demand and will seek collaboratively to address these issues.

The challenges of accessing appropriate childcare are a societal issue. The government recently announced its intention to significantly expand the current entitlement to 30 hours of free childcare per week, to include children from the age of nine months through to when they start school. This expansion will be of significant benefit to Armed Forces families, as well as the general population.