Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National Audit Office's report entitled Preparations to extend early years entitlements for working parents in England, published on 24 April 2024, what steps she is taking to deliver the additional childcare places needed.
Answered by David Johnston
In 2010 there was only 12.5 hours of childcare support for some families with 3 and 4-year-olds. This government has already significantly expanded that support, to 30 hours free childcare for working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds.
The department is now going further, making the largest investment in childcare in England’s history.
The rates for the new entitlements have been independently confirmed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) to be well above market rates. The department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds to increase hourly funding rates and has allocated £100 million in capital funding for more early years (EY) and wrapround places and spaces.
The department has also launched a range of new workforce initiatives to boost EY staff numbers. The department’s recruitment campaign ‘Do something BIG. Work with small children’ is backed by £6.5 million and is raising the status of EY to boost the recruitment of talented staff.
On top of this, in order to further boost the workforce, the department has invited 20 local authorities to take part in a £4.9 million pilot to test whether financial incentives in EY would help boost recruitment in the same way it has for teachers. Up to 3,000 eligible joiners and returners to the workforce will receive a £1,000 tax-free cash payment, shortly after they take up the post. This is as well as an investment of £7.2 million to deliver Skills Bootcamps for Early Years which enables learners to progress on an accelerated Level 3 Early Years Apprenticeship. This builds on previous growth in the market. The total number of paid childcare staff increased by 12,900 (or 4%) from 334,400 in 2022 to 347,300 in 2023, and the overall number of places increased by 15,100 (or 1%) over the same period.
It is important to note that Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about the sufficiency of childcare in their area including their work to support the EY workforce recruitment and retention. No local authorities have reported to the department that they do not have sufficient childcare places.
The department continues to monitor the recruitment of EY staff alongside the sufficiency of childcare provision and are committed to continuing to work with the sector understand how it can further support EY workforce recruitment and retention.
The department already has significant support in place for disadvantaged families.
In addition to the expanded entitlements, the government has also taken action to support parents on Universal Credit with childcare costs upfront when they need it, rather than in arrears. The department has increased support for these parents by increasing the childcare cost maximum amounts to £950 for one child and £1629 for two children.
The department already funds 15 hours of free early education a week for disadvantaged 2-year-olds and children with an education, health and care plan or a Statement of Special Educational Needs.
Over 1.2 million disadvantaged 2-year-olds have benefitted from 15 hours early education and care entitlement since the entitlement began in September 2013. 74%, or 124,200, of eligible children were taking up the 2-year-old entitlement for the most disadvantaged children, which is an increase in the take up rates from 72%, or 135,400, in January 2022.
The department also supports the most disadvantaged by investing in high quality early education, family hubs and local services, and by helping parents to support their child’s early language development at home.
It is important that local authorities reflect deprivation within their local funding approach. To support this, we have introduced a requirement for local authorities to ensure that the final funding rate they pay to providers for the disadvantaged 2-year-old entitlement is at least equivalent to the final rate for the 2-year-old working parent entitlement.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National Audit Office's value for money report entitled Preparations to extend early years entitlements for working parents in England on the expansion of government funded childcare, published on 24 April 2024, which local authorities she estimates will need to increase their childcare hours by 20% or more by September 2025.
Answered by David Johnston
As the National Audit Office (NAO) recently reported, the department has developed a model to estimate supply and demand nationally and locally. This allows the department to estimate the required increases in early years hours to meet demand for key delivery milestones.
The regional differences are illustrated in Figure 11 of the NAO report. Further detail of this analysis has not been published. It has been shared directly with local authorities to use alongside their local intelligence and support local sufficiency assessments.
The supply and demand model is updated regularly with the latest data, including as more parents apply for eligibility codes and the department has an improved understanding of local demand.
The indicative output of this supply and demand modelling is only one factor the department takes into account when judging the scale of the challenge a local authority faces. The department also accounts for the local authorities own assessment of supply and demand and their responses to the departments readiness assessments.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National Audit Office's value for money report entitled Preparations to extend early years entitlements for working parents in England on the expansion of government funded childcare, published on 24 April 2024, what steps she is taking to track the number of childcare staff required in each region for the expansion in 30-hours funded childcare, in addition to her Department’s national level projection.
Answered by David Johnston
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England to discuss the rollout of the expanded entitlements and the sufficiency of childcare. This includes understanding whether early years workforce recruitment and retention in each local authority is sufficient to meet the demand for new places.
Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed provide support to the local authority with any specific requirements through the department’s childcare sufficiency support contract.
Additionally, the department collects information on the childcare workforce through the Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers and regular pulse surveys. The Childcare and Early Years Providers survey is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2023, and the pulse survey is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-impact-of-childcare-reforms-on-childcare-and-early-years-providers.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to para 3.11 of the National Audit Office's value for money report entitled Preparations to extend early years entitlements for working parents in England on the expansion of government funded childcare, published on 24 April 2024, what indicators she plans to use to track progress of the childcare roll-out; and what criteria would need to be met for her Department to change its assessment of the likelihood of meeting the September (a) 2024 and (b) 2025 phases of the roll-out.
Answered by David Johnston
Key Performance Indicators will be used to measure delivery performance against a range of objectives including:
In the lead up to the April 2024 delivery milestone the department saw these indicators improve, with over 200,000 children finding places and no reports of insufficiency from local authorities. The department would expect to see a similar results in the lead up to September 2024 and September 2025.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship starts there have been among young people aged (a) under 19 and (b) 19 to 24, by level, for each academic year since 2018-19.
Answered by Luke Hall
The following link sets out the apprenticeship starts by under 19s, including those aged between 19 to 24: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/04dbd954-342d-4fa1-2d37-08dc5ed9bc49
Further information on apprenticeship starts can be found in the apprenticeships publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 22 April 2022 to Question 151074 on Department for Education: Parking, if she will take steps to update and publish the data relating to her Department and arm's length bodies in that table.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The attached table includes data to support the response relating to the department and arm’s length bodies.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the website for her Department's consultation entitled Experience-Based Route for Early Years Practitioners, launched on 22 April 2024, was (a) designed, (b) supplied and (c) assured by the Government Digital Service.
Answered by David Johnston
The consultation entitled ‘Experience-Based Route for Early Years Practitioners’ is being held on Citizen Space. The website was not designed, supplied or assured by the Government Digital Service. The site complies with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.2 AA standard.
If, for exceptional reasons, a person is unable to use the online system, they may request and complete a word document version of the form by email or by post.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish her Department's results in the civil service people survey questions on leadership and managing change for each of the last 14 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The department’s results for each of the questions in the Civil Service People Survey relating to leadership and managing change are published online:
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral statement of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education of 23 April 2023 on Childcare Entitlements, Official Report, for what reason the statement was made (a) before the publication of a National Audit Office (NAO) on that matter and (b) while the NAO report was under embargo.
Answered by David Johnston
This government’s plan to support hard working families is working. The department are making the largest ever investment in childcare in England’s history. By September 2025, when the new entitlements are fully rolled out, working families will on average save £6,900 with 30 hours free childcare from when their child is 9 months old until they start school.
The roll out has already been successful, with the government exceeding its targets for the April roll out of the first 15 hours for two year olds. As the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing set out in a statement to the house yesterday, and as acknowledged by the National Audit Office report, parents of over 195,000 two year olds are now benefitting from this government’s new and historic childcare offer.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's (a) mean result and (b) standard deviation in the civil service people survey results for questions (i) W01, (ii) W02, (iii) W03 and (iv) W04 on personal wellbeing has been in each of the last 15 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The questions on personal wellbeing were introduced to the Civil Service People Survey in 2012 and therefore have only been in the survey for each of the last 12 years.
The attached table provides the mean average and standard deviation of the department’s results for the four questions on personal wellbeing W01 to W04.
The department does not hold the individual-level survey data, which is required in order to calculate the mean and standard deviation for 2017 or 2019.