Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to increase funding in the early years education sector.

We are planning to spend over £3.6 billion on early education entitlements in 2020-21. Future funding will be a matter for the next spending review.

The government is committed to supporting families with their childcare costs. Last October, we announced increases in our hourly rates for the 2-year-old entitlement and in most areas for the 3- and 4-year-old entitlement, effective from April of this year.

We also announced that supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools will continue until the end of the financial year 2020-21.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, we continue to pay local authorities their regular instalments of Dedicated Schools Grant, including the early years block, as usual.

We continue to work closely with the early years sector to understand how it can best be supported to ensure that sufficient childcare is available for those returning to work now, and for all families who need it in the longer term.