Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made on the adequacy of funding for childcare and social care services to meet the increase in public sector pay and the National Living Wage.

The Department for Education has spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past three years on our early education entitlements and the government will continue to support families with their childcare costs.

At the Spending Review on 27 October, it was announced that the department is investing additional funding for the early years entitlements worth £160 million in the 2022-23 financial year, £180 million in the 2023-24 financial year and £170 million in 2024-25 financial year, compared to the current year. This is for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers for the government’s free childcare entitlement offers and reflects the costs of inflation and national living wage increases.

Local authorities spent over £10 billion on children and young people’s services in the 2019-20 financial year. Local authorities fund their services, including those for children, from their core spending power and this year councils have access to £51.3 billion for their services, including a £1.7 billion grant for social care.

My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that government will provide local authorities with £4.8 billion of new grant funding over the next Spending Review period, which is intended to help meet the costs of delivering care for our most vulnerable children. This will enable the sector to maintain vital frontline services, including children’s services workforce, in light of additional pressures including inflation.