Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase (1) awareness, and (2) the take-up, of their childcare schemes.

Improving parents’ awareness and take-up of childcare schemes is a government priority.

Delivered in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs, the Childcare Choices campaign aims to increase awareness of government childcare support to ease the pressures for working parents, and signposts to the Childcare Choices website to make it easy for people to claim: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.

The campaign has been delivered in two bursts through radio, search, digital outdoor (e.g. bus stop advertising) and social media advertising, with the first burst running over the summer period from 30 June to 31 August. We also delivered a press partnership with the Metro (online and print), the Sun Online and the Independent Online in August. The second campaign burst went live on 31 October, with a short pause over Christmas, before it resumes again in the new year.

The campaign has driven extensive reach, with ads being viewed through digital and search over 59 million times. There has also been strong engagement in the campaign, with over 559,000 Childcare Choices website sessions. The first burst of the campaign has also demonstrated a solid conversion rate, with 77,995 referrals to GOV.UK pages from Childcare Choices for each element of childcare support:

• Universal Credit – 6,598 referrals, a 156% increase
• Tax-Free Childcare – 25,840 referrals, a 116% increase
• 30 hours – 16,731 referrals, a 27% increase

We will be able to report on final GOV.UK referral numbers when the second burst of the campaign is complete. We continue to work across government to increase awareness and encourage families to use the government-funded support they are entitled to.