Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the number of childcare providers and childminders in each local authority area who cannot cover their costs in delivering the 30 hours of free childcare for three and four-year olds.

30 hours is already working in practice. The independent evaluation of early roll out areas found over 80% of providers are willing and able to offer extended hours places. The Government is investing £1 billion of extra funding every year in early years entitlements. That includes £300 million per year to increase the national average funding rate. This investment is based on the Cost of Childcare review, which was described as “thorough and wide ranging” by the National Audit Office. Recently published research into the cost of childcare conducted by Frontier Economics shows that the Government’s new funding rates compare very favourably with the average hourly cost of providing childcare to a three or four year old.