Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that childcare places are available to parents eligible for the extended funded hours under the new childcare scheme in West Dorset constituency.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change. In 2025/26 alone, we plan to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements, a 30% increase compared to 2024/25. We have made available £500 million in capital investment to expand early years provision for existing settings and to support the creation of new ones. The department is working closely with local authorities which are being supported to map provision gaps and work with new and existing providers to fill them. The government is also simplifying the registration and regulatory process to make it easier for new providers to enter the market. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department works closely to address issues including through out childcare sufficiency support contract.

These actions are showing an impact with an increase of almost 6,000 providers and over 18,000 staff in the last year.