Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether 15 hours of free childcare will be extended to (a) all children from the age of nine months and (b) the children of working parents from the age of nine months; with reference to the blog post on her Department's Education Hub website entitled Budget 2023: Everything you need to know about childcare support, published on 16 March 2023, and to the blog post entitled Free childcare: How we are tackling the cost of childcare, published on 7 July 2023, for what reason this information is not consistent on that website; what sign-off processes are in place for the accuracy of information on that website; and if she will make a statement.

In the Government’s Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children, the economy and women. By 2027/28, the Government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.

From April 2024, all eligible working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access their 15 hours of free childcare (over 38 weeks a year) from the term after their child’s 2nd birthday. From September 2024, eligible parents will be able to access 15 hours free childcare (over 38 weeks a year) from the term following their child turning 9 months, and the offer will be rolled out in full from September 2025, with eligible working parents of children aged 9 months and above able to access 30 hours (over 38 weeks a year) from the term following their child turning 9 months.

To be eligible for the 30-hour entitlement for children from age 9 months up, as with the current 30 hours offer, parents will need to earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at National Minimum or Living Wage (£167 per week/£8,670 per year in 2023/2024), and less than £100,000 adjusted net income per year.

The department has communicated clearly that the offer is for working parents. The Education Hub is the Department’s parent-facing blog which aims to explain policy in a digestible format available at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/. The Hub post in question references throughout that this policy applies to working parents. To avoid any unintended confusion, the sentenced cited, has been updated in the post. All communications are cleared by the relevant policy and communications leads before publication