Childcare

(asked on 15th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on (a) rolling out 15 hours of free childcare for working parents of two-year-olds from April 2024 and (b) extending 15 hours of free childcare to all children from the age of nine months from September 2024.


Answered by
David Johnston Portrait
David Johnston
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This question was answered on 20th November 2023

Since the Spring Budget 2023, the department has made good progress with preparations to roll out 15 hours of free childcare for working parents of two-year-olds from April 2024, and to extend the 15 hours of free childcare to all children from the age of nine months from September 2024. The department’s progress includes:

  • Provided £204 million of additional funding in the 2023/24 financial year and will provide £288 million in 2024/25, in addition to the £4.1 billion that the government expects to provide by 2027/28 to facilitate the expansion of the new entitlements.
  • Consulted on the new national funding formula that will be used to distribute funding for the entitlements for children aged 2 and under, and the local rules local authorities should follow when passing on this funding to providers. The department will shortly be publishing a response to the consultation and confirming final 2024/25 financial year hourly funding rates for local authorities.
  • Consulted on amending the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework to support reform of the childcare market and published government’s consultation response. The consultation response confirmed that the Department is introducing a number of changes that will provide more flexibility and remove burdens for early years providers, while maintaining quality and safety standards.
  • Brought into law the change of staff: child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5 for two-year-olds in England.
  • Developed a range of new workforce initiatives including a new, national, multi-channel broadcast recruitment campaign, planned for the beginning of 2024, to boost interest in the sector and signup to early years and childcare apprenticeships.
  • Announced that the childminder start-up grants scheme, which will provide financial support to new childminders entering the sector on or after 15 March 2023, will open for applications by Thursday 30 November 2023.
  • Tabled amendments to primary legislation (via the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill) to allow childminders to work with more people and spend more time on non-domestic premises.
  • Updated the Childcare Choices website so that parents can see exactly what additional childcare support they will be entitled to, using the updated website’s eligibility checker, based on the age of their child and earnings. The website now also gives parents the opportunity to sign up for regular updates letting them know when they should take action to make sure they are getting the support they are entitled to.  More information is available at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
  • Provided a further £12 million to local authorities this financial year to support them to effectively roll out the new offer and announced £100 million in capital funding for local authorities to support the delivery of the expansion of the 30-hours early years entitlement and of wraparound provision in maintained primary schools.
  • Substantial and ongoing engagement with local authorities and the sector to support their preparations for providing more places.

Further information on the rollout can be accessed at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/07/free-childcare-how-we-tackling-the-cost-of-childcare/.

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