Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of childcare providers that have closed in Wellingborough constituency in each of the last five years.

This government is making the largest investment in childcare in England’s history. By the 2027/28 financial year, the government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education. It will provide hard working parents 30 hours of free childcare per week (38 weeks per year) for children aged 9 months to until they start school. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.

As announced in the Spring Budget, the department will substantially uplift the hourly rate paid to local authorities and childcare providers to deliver existing free entitlements offers. In the 2024/25 financial year alone, we will invest over £400 million additional funding to deliver a significant uplift to these rates. This investment builds on the £204 million of additional funding provided in the 2023/24 financial year (paid from September 2023).

The department does not hold data for the number of childcare providers that have either opened or closed in the Wellingborough constituency specifically or by individual years.