Childcare Bill: Early Implementation

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

Today I announced £13 million to allow councils across the country to deliver 30 hours of free childcare for hard-working parents of three and four-year-olds—a year ahead of schedule. As a result, some working parents in York, Wigan, Staffordshire, Swindon, Portsmouth, Northumberland, Newham and Hertfordshire will benefit from the offer from this September. The extra hours of childcare will make it easier for these parents to work and is another move designed to meet the Government’s commitment to make work pay. These councils will develop practical solutions to the barriers that parents face in accessing the childcare they need for work—for example, childcare to support non-standard shift patterns, in rural areas, for homeless working parents, and for children with special educational needs and disabilities. Their experiences will be used to support full roll-out in 2017, with the aim of removing significant barriers to parents taking up their entitlement. In York, parents will test a new joint online application system being developed for 30 hours and tax-free childcare. The Department for Education ran an open competition to test how the 30 hours would work, and received 69 applications from local authorities working with childcare providers.

I have also announced £4 million to support an additional 25 “early innovator” local authorities to develop innovative, flexible childcare for working parents, and to make sure that the 30 hours works for children with special educational needs and disabilities, in homeless working families, and in rural communities ahead of full roll-out. The 33 local authorities will work together in regional clusters, enabling joint working and generating national learning. As part of this Government’s commitment to helping hard-working people, it will be investing more than £1 billion extra per year by 2019-20 to fund the extension of the free childcare entitlement.

[HCWS506]