Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support parents with changes to nursery funding.

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

Our reforms include:

• Providing over £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to fund 30 hours of free childcare for children over the age of nine months.
• Investing £204 million from this September, rising to £288 million next year to uplift the rates for existing entitlements.
• Increasing the supply of wraparound care through £289 million start-up funding.
• Attracting more people to childminding through an up to £7.2 million start up grant fund.
• Giving providers more flexibility by changing staff to child ratios to 1:5 for two- year-olds in England.

The department will continue to work closely with the sector on the implementation of these reforms and will set out further details in due course. This is a massive expansion in the offer and will take some time to implement and rollout. The department wants to make sure that taxpayers’ money is used efficiently and that the new offer is delivered in the best way.

The government’s Childcare Choices communications campaign aims to ensure every parent knows about the government funded support they are eligible for. Further information on Childcare Choices is available at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/. Further information on the full range of support available to parents can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/.