Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential impact of differences in local authority funding formulas on access to high-quality early years provision in disadvantaged communities.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department expects to spend over £8 billion on early years entitlements in 2025/26, distributed through the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF), based on hourly funding rates for each local authority. The EYNFF reflects the relative needs of the children and costs of delivering provision in that area and includes additional needs factors that account for 10.5% of entitlement funding.
Eligible children also attract early years pupil premium (EYPP), to improve the educational outcomes of socio-economically disadvantaged children. We are delivering the largest ever uplift to the EYPP this year, increasing the rate by over 45% from 68p per hour in 2024/25 to £1 in 2025/26, so the EYPP is equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year.
Local authorities are responsible for funding providers in their area using their own local funding formula. These local formulae must include a deprivation supplement for 3 and 4-year-olds.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that early years provision in disadvantaged areas is adequately funded to meet the needs of children and families.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department expects to spend over £8 billion on early years entitlements in 2025/26, distributed through the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF), based on hourly funding rates for each local authority. The EYNFF reflects the relative needs of the children and costs of delivering provision in that area and includes additional needs factors that account for 10.5% of entitlement funding.
Eligible children also attract early years pupil premium (EYPP), to improve the educational outcomes of socio-economically disadvantaged children. We are delivering the largest ever uplift to the EYPP this year, increasing the rate by over 45% from 68p per hour in 2024/25 to £1 in 2025/26, so the EYPP is equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year.
Local authorities are responsible for funding providers in their area using their own local funding formula. These local formulae must include a deprivation supplement for 3 and 4-year-olds.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish data on the take-up of funded early years places by disadvantaged children by local authority.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The latest accredited official statistics release entitled ‘Funded early education and childcare’ for January 2025 was published on 17 July 2025. A minor correction was made on 31 July, as noted on the publication page.
Dataset 3 in this release shows national, regional and local authority level information on the number of children registered for funded early years provision according to whether the child was in receipt of the early years pupil premium. Dataset 3 is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/funded-early-education-and-childcare.
Of all 3 and 4 year-olds who are registered for the universal entitlement, one third of those are in state-funded reception classes. Therefore, dataset 3 also includes figures for these children on free school meal eligibility.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) including key skilled early years professional roles where there is a shortage to the skilled worker visa route and (b) easing the visa process for skilled early years workers on the early years workforce.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department recognises the huge contribution the early years workforce makes to young children’s lives. The workforce is at the heart of the government’s mission to give every child the best start in life and deliver the Plan for Change. Workforce numbers increased by 6% between 2023 and 2024.
Various early years roles are included in the list of occupations eligible for Skilled Worker visas. Settings can use this route if the salary threshold (£41,700) is met. Nursery education teaching professionals on national pay scales are subject to a lower threshold (£25,000).
The Migration Advisory Committee advises government on migration issues and regularly considers the case for changes. Data on numbers of workers on Skilled Worker Visas are held by the Home Office, while the recruitment of individual staff is conducted by settings.
The department is supporting providers to recruit domestically by attracting talented staff into the sector, supporting the recruitment and retention of childminders, and making careers as accessible and rewarding as possible.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that early years practitioners are (a) trained and (b) supported to meet the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable children.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department is committed to giving every child the best start in life through high-quality early years education.
We are investing in programmes that support children’s development where it is needed most, including online child development training, more national professional qualification places, and new professional development for educators and leaders.
Stronger Practice Hubs will double from 18 to 36, expanding access to evidence-based training and resources. Early years initial teacher training places are increasing, alongside a new degree apprenticeship route, with incentives to attract and retain teachers in under-served communities.
The department is funding 1,000 level 3 special educational needs coordinators this year and investing £3.4 million in the Early Language Support for Every Child programme. Early maths and language leads will offer hands-on support, ensuring all children, regardless of background, benefit from high-quality early education.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure disadvantaged children in early years settings have access to healthy, nutritious meals.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department is committed to giving every child the best possible start in life. Good nutrition in the early years is essential for children’s health and long-term development, which is why we recently introduced new nutrition guidance in the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework.
The new guidance, developed in collaboration with nutrition experts and sector representatives, will help early years providers understand how to meet the existing EYFS requirements.
Pupils attending a local authority, maintained, academy or free school nursery are entitled to free school meals (FSM), as long as they are either in full-time education or receive education both before and after lunch and meet the benefits-based FSM eligibility criteria.
From September 2026, the department will extend FSM to all children in households receiving Universal Credit, including those in state-funded school-based nurseries and maintained nursery schools.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of the 3 February 2025 to Question 26386 on Children: Hearing Impairment, whether the expected apprenticeship in Sensory Impairment will be funded via the Apprenticeship Levy; and when course providers will be told the final decision on funding for the course so that they can start to accept applications for the planned September 2025 start.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government is committed to spreading opportunities and economic growth with the support of a strong skills system.
This government has an extremely challenging fiscal inheritance. There are tough choices that need to be taken on how funding should be prioritised in order to generate opportunities for young people that enable them to make a start in good, fulfilling careers. The government will therefore be asking more employers to step forward and fund a significant number of level 7 apprenticeships themselves. The department is taking advice from Skills England, who engaged with employers over the autumn, and the department expects to make a final decision on affected apprenticeships, including the pending level 7 apprenticeship in sensory impairment, shortly.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that (a) deaf children and (b) their families receive support from specialist teachers of the deaf in (i) education and (ii) early years settings.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has developed a Sensory Impairment apprenticeship. The apprenticeship is expected to be available from September 2025 and will open up a paid, work-based route into teaching children and young people with sensory impairments. This will improve the supply of those qualified to teach this important cohort and further help to improve their outcomes.
It is also important that early years practitioners are able to identify and support children with SEND, including children with hearing impairment and deafness. The department wants deaf children to be able to thrive in their early years, which might sometimes mean that settings access specialist teachers for the deaf.
The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life, including those with SEND. It stipulates that providers must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND. Maintained schools, maintained nursery schools and all providers who are funded by the local authority to deliver early education places must have regard for the SEND Code of Practice.
In November, the department published the updated early years foundation stage profile handbook, which includes a change to allow a child’s established or preferred mode of communication (including British Sign Language) to be used for all of the early learning goals, including speaking. The handbook can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-handbook.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the nature is of her Department's consultation with (a) charities representing disabled children and (b) disabled young people on the development of the Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The Child Poverty Taskforce, of which my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is co-chair, is building on the wealth of existing evidence and expertise across the UK to develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty. We are listening carefully to the voices of children and families living in poverty, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Examples of the engagement we have undertaken are events with Contact, a charity for families with disabled children, ALLFIE, a campaign group focused on including disabled learners in mainstream education, and the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, which aims to improve opportunities for young people with severe learning disabilities and their families.
The Taskforce recognises that poverty impacts the whole family so, alongside this, a forum of parents and carers has been brought together to input to the strategy. The approach has been designed to be inclusive and capture the experiences of a broad range of parents, carers and children, including those with SEND.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with which charities representing disabled children her Department has consulted on the development of the Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The Child Poverty Taskforce, of which my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is co-chair, is building on the wealth of existing evidence and expertise across the UK to develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty. We are listening carefully to the voices of children and families living in poverty, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Examples of the engagement we have undertaken are events with Contact, a charity for families with disabled children, ALLFIE, a campaign group focused on including disabled learners in mainstream education, and the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, which aims to improve opportunities for young people with severe learning disabilities and their families.
The Taskforce recognises that poverty impacts the whole family so, alongside this, a forum of parents and carers has been brought together to input to the strategy. The approach has been designed to be inclusive and capture the experiences of a broad range of parents, carers and children, including those with SEND.