Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the extension of early education for three and four-year olds with working parents to 30 hours per week on the availability of places for disadvantaged two-year olds receiving 15 hours per week.

We remain strongly committed to providing 15 hours of free early learning a week to disadvantaged two year olds because evidence tells us that early education promotes school readiness and longer-term outcomes, particularly for the most disadvantaged children.

Data collected in January 2016 shows that take up of this programme is growing, with 68% of two year olds benefitting from funded early learning, and we continue to support local authorities to increase take up further. We have provided local authorities with estimates of the number of children who may be eligible in their areas from September, so they can plan and ensure there are enough places available to accommodate all the Government’s childcare offers. We have increased the national average funding rate for the two year old entitlement from £5.09 to £5.39 an hour, to help ensure childcare providers continue to provide the places parents need to access their entitlement. We will also continue to provide lists of eligible parents to local authorities so that they can promote the entitlement directly to those who could benefit.

A number of early implementer areas are focusing on ensuring that disadvantaged children remain able to access the free entitlement and looking at the impact of 30 hours in areas with high levels of maintained provision.