Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that providers receive the adequate level of funding to deliver the 30 hours of free childcare policy.

The Government will be investing over £1billion more per year by 2019-20 to fund our commitments on the early years entitlements – this includes £300 million per year from 2017-18 for a significant increase to the hourly rate paid for the two-, three- and four-year-old entitlements.

It is vital that funding for these entitlements is fairly distributed between different parts of the country and different types of providers, so that they can deliver both the existing 15-hour entitlement and the extended 30-hour entitlement for working parents, on a sustainable basis.

That is why we have recently consulted on our proposals for a national funding formula for the early years. Under our proposals, 75% of local authorities would have higher funding rates, and providers in the vast majority of local authorities can expect to gain funding, as maximum funding is passed through to the frontline. We are currently considering all responses to the consultation, and are planning to publish the government’s response shortly.