Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assistance her Department has made available to Lancashire County Council for expanding the number of free childcare places.

The Department for Education has provided funding to Lancashire as set out in the table below. This information can also be found at: http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/l/2yo%20capital%20and%20revenue%20funding%20allocations%20spreadsheet.pdf

and:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/la-allocations-for-early-learning-for-2-year-olds-2014-to-2015.

In addition, the Department has supported all local authorities through: national marketing campaigns; funding IT and implementation support; introducing an electronic checking service; and, providing live data to local authorities about which children in their area are eligible.