Asked by: Claire Young (Liberal Democrat - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what process her Department has in place to help ensure that Plan 2 student loan borrowers are informed of any changes made to their repayment terms.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Student Loans Company (SLC) publishes confirmation of the interest rates and repayment threshold to apply in the upcoming financial year annually on GOV.UK. Furthermore, SLC have extensive guidance on the operation of the student loan repayments system available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the (1) total number, and (2) percentage, of parents eligible for 30 hours of free childcare who have not used those hours in the most recent period for which data is available; and what assessment they have made of the main reason for non-take up of the entitlement, including lack of local capacity or administrative complexity.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
As of January 2025, 1.7 million eligible children were registered for childcare entitlements. This includes the number of 3 and 4 year-olds registered for the universal entitlement, the number of children aged 9 months to 2 years registered for the working parent entitlement, and the number of 2 year-olds registered for early learning for two year-olds entitlement. Additional take up statistics for early years entitlements can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025.
Furthermore, the Childcare Experience Survey explores some of the reasons that parents do not take up entitlements, though this does not cover the latest expansion to 30 hours from 9 months.
The department remains committed to improving awareness of and access to the early years' entitlements.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current staff turnover rate for qualified early years educators in England; and what steps they plan to take to address the disparity between median early years sector wages and the average starting salary for a primary school teaching assistant with equivalent qualifications.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The ‘Childcare and early years providers survey: 2025’ shows turnover rate for all early years educators in private group-based providers is 16% and 7% in school-based providers. Estimated turnover rates have fallen for both provider types. Fieldwork for the survey was carried out between May and July 2025.
In 2026/27, we expect to provide over £9.5 billion, more than doubling the government’s commitment to funded childcare and reflects above inflation increases to both funding rates and National Living Wage.
Early education is delivered by a mixed market, the majority of which are private, voluntary and independent provision who set their own rates of pay. Hourly pay increased by 8.2% at school-based providers and by 6.3% at group-based providers against a backdrop of a 6.7% increase in the national living wage between 2024 and 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to their response to Memorandum on child poverty in the UK, published by the Council of Europe Commission for Human Rights on 25 February, whether they will publish (1) a children's rights impact assessment, and (2) a child-friendly version of the child poverty strategy; and if so, when they plan to publish those documents.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We will publish a children’s rights impact assessment alongside a child‑friendly version of the strategy later this month.
Development of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy was guided by a children’s rights approach throughout. This included actively engaging with children and young people, as well as organisations that represent them, ensuring their voices and lived experiences shaped policy development.
We are committed to continuing this approach as the strategy is implemented, by hearing directly from children and their families. This will ensure their experiences and feedback are considered when evaluating the strategy’s implementation and areas to improve delivery of the strategy are identified.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has considered piloting or introducing an exemption to childcare funding rules where a relative is a registered childminder meeting all regulatory requirements.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Parents are free to choose the childcare that is right for them and their children, and childminders are not prevented from caring for related children.
However, the restriction on funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4) of this Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative.
Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses.
A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child, but this would have to be from local authority funds independent of the dedicated schools grant.
Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to enable childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Department plans to review the eligibility criteria for government-funded childcare for children cared for by qualified and Ofsted-registered relatives.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Parents are free to choose the childcare that is right for them and their children, and childminders are not prevented from caring for related children.
However, the restriction on funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4) of this Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative.
Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses.
A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child, but this would have to be from local authority funds independent of the dedicated schools grant.
Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to enable childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many local authority areas currently have a shortfall of funded places for 30 hours of free child care to meet local demand; what is the average reported waiting list time in months for a full-time funded place in the ten worst affected areas; and what target date has been set for ensuring enough funded places are available in all areas.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2026/27, we expect to provide over £9.5 billion for the early years' entitlements. This will more than double annual public investment in the early years sector compared to 2023/24, as we have successfully rolled out the expansion of government funded childcare for working parents.
We have announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life. The first phase of the programme is creating up to 6,000 new nursery places, with schools reporting over 5,000 have been made available from September 2025.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and. Where needed we will support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. The department does not hold data on waiting lists. No local authorities have reported to us that they do not have sufficient childcare places.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average hourly rate paid to early years providers for the 30 hours of free childcare entitlement in this financial year; and what detailed analysis they have carried out to compare that rate to the median hourly cost of childcare delivery for a child aged 3–4 years old in the private, voluntary and independent sector.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2025/26, the average rate per hour that the department pays to local authorities is £11.54 for under 2s, £8.53 for 2-year olds, and £6.12 for 3-and-4-year olds although this will vary by local authorities to reflect how costs vary across the country. Local authorities then use local formulae to determine the rate they pay to providers and there is a statutory duty that at least 96% (rising to 97% in 2026/27) is passed onto providers.
To inform decisions on the rate at which early years providers are funded for delivering entitlements, the department uses an analytical model which uses data from the early years census and the survey of childcare and early years providers, a large-scale and robust survey on the childcare market in England, sampling over 9,000 providers. It also considers various government forecasts such as AEG and CPI and factors in the national living wage to determine cost pressures for the early years sector.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of improving access to the Longitudinal Education Outcomes dataset.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department recognises the value of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset in supporting high‑quality research and evidence‑based policymaking. LEO already underpins a wide range of official statistics and analytical publications, and independent researchers can access the underlying data securely through the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service.
The department works with its partners to improve user experience, streamline access processes, and to expand support materials to assist third party use of LEO data.
A further five years of funding to develop LEO access has recently been confirmed for this purpose along with the largest ever increase of funding to the development of LEO.
Improvements must balance the potential merits with our obligations to safeguard personal data and the public’s trust. We keep arrangements for data access under regular review to ensure they remain proportionate, secure and in line with data protection requirements.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress has been made on delivering specialist mental health provision in every school in Gloucester by 2029.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As of April 2025, 88% of pupils and learners and 76% of schools and colleges in Gloucester constituency were covered by a Mental Health Support Team (MHST), compared to 52% of pupils and learners and 41% of schools and colleges nationally. Further data for 2024/25 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision. This has been available since 16 May 2025 at national, regional and local authority level and since 10 July 2025 at constituency level.
Around six in ten pupils nationally are expected to have access to an MHST by April 2026. Data on MHST coverage is collected annually.