Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve support for parents of disabled children in accessing appropriate childcare in Yeovil constituency.

The government recognises the important role of early years settings in supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and delivering early intervention. The department will build on the Best Start in Life commitments to embed inclusive practice across all early years teaching and qualifications so that inclusive practice becomes standard practice.

An additional £47 million will be provided in 2026/27 to support the early years sector to become more inclusive of children with SEND. This will be added to the three-year £1.6 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund and will be funded upfront to help providers adopt setting-wide inclusive practices, reduce reliance on individual child-based funding applications and enable early intervention for children with SEND.

The department is in regular contact with each local authority in England regarding their childcare sufficiency. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss the action they are taking to address those issues. The department will support local authorities with any specific requirements where appropriate as needs arise. There are no reported sufficiency issues in Yeovil.