Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has assessed the relationship between (a) the level of provision of early years’ education and (b) inequalities in educational attainment.

Evidence tells us that children from disadvantaged backgrounds can be up to 19 months behind their better off peers in their learning by the time they start school. High-quality early learning from the age of 2 can help to narrow that gap, helping those children to achieve better GCSE results and ultimately earn higher wages.

That is why we require local authorities to fund places for 2 year old children at providers judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. Since its introduction in 2013, nearly three quarters of a million of the country’s most disadvantaged 2 year olds have benefitted from the entitlement to 15 hours of free early education a week. Take-up is rising, and is now 72%.

As of 31 August 2018, the proportion of childcare providers judged good or outstanding remains at its highest ever at 95%.