Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of proposals to extend eligibility for free childcare per parent who is able to return to work.

At the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced additional funding of £4.1 billion that the government will provide by 2027/28 to facilitate the expansion of the new early education free hours offer. All eligible working parents in England will therefore be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week, for 38 weeks of the year, from when their child is 9 months old to when they start school by September 2025.

The hourly rates for the existing entitlements will also be substantially uplifted. This is on top of additional investments announced at the 2021 Spending Review.

The government will provide £204 million of additional funding from September 2023, increasing to £288 million by 2024/25, for local authorities to further increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers. This will include an average 30% increase in the 2-year-old rate from September 2023 and means that the average hourly rate for 2-year-olds will rise from the current £6 per hour in 2023/24 to around £8 per hour. The average 3 and 4-year-old rate will rise in line with inflation to over £5.50 per hour from September 2023, with further uplifts beyond this. We will publish more details on this in due course.