Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to ensure the Government's proposals for free childcare for children aged over nine months, as announced in the Budget 2023, apply to parents who already have childcare arrangements in place.

The department is expanding the current free childcare offer, so that eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks per year from when their child is 9 months old to when they start school.

From April 2024, working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare per week (across 38 weeks of the year). From September 2024 this will be extended to parents of 9 month to 3-year-olds, and from September 2025 working parents of 9 month to 3-year-olds will be able to access 30 free hours per week (38 weeks a year).

Parents who already have childcare arrangements in place will be able to benefit from this new offer, as well as benefiting from the government’s current range of childcare offers, which includes the free early education entitlements as well as Tax-Free Childcare and Universal Credit Childcare.