Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the expansion of funded childcare supports improved outcomes for disadvantaged children.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Best Start in Life Strategy sets out this government’s commitment to increase take-up of the 15-hour early education and childcare offers for two, three and four-year-olds, ensuring low-income families, children with special educational needs and disabilities and children in care receive the early education they are entitled to. The department will engage directly with local authorities where take-up is lowest, supporting families through Best Start Family Hubs to take up their funded hours, addressing local variation in performance and tracking data through the Local Government Outcomes Framework.
Building on the largest ever uplift to Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) in 2025/26, we have increased EYPP rates by 15% to £1.15 per hour in 2026/27, equivalent to up to £655 per eligible child per year.
Low income working families and children with special educational needs and disabilities can benefit from the expansion of funded childcare. Parents could be eligible if they each earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at National Minimum Wage, equivalent to £10,574.72 annually.
To make sure that the early years funding system is hardwired to benefit those children and parts of the country that have higher levels of additional need, we will review early years funding, including national funding formulae, and consult the sector on changes by summer 2026.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the early years funding system supports a) providers operating on a year-round basis and b) parents who require year-round provision.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This government continues to prioritise and protect investment in the early years, which is why we are investing over £1 billion more in the early years entitlements this year compared to 2025/26 to deliver a full year of the expanded entitlements, and an above inflation increase to entitlements funding rates. The most recent Coram–PACEY Childcare Survey 2026, finds that the expansion of 30 hours of funded childcare has significantly reduced out of pocket costs for eligible working parents in England, in some cases making part time childcare effectively free during term time.
By allowing funded hours to be stretched across the year, deducting closures from calculations, and enabling mixed‑provider models, the system is designed to work alongside all‑year childcare businesses, managing funding and fees transparently and within national limits, broadening parental choice.
The department has 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.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 funding supports a) financial accessibility for families and b) sustainability for providers.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This government continues to prioritise and protect investment in the early years, which is why we are investing over £1 billion more in the early years entitlements this year compared to 2025/26 to deliver a full year of the expanded entitlements, and an above inflation increase to entitlements funding rates. The most recent Coram–PACEY Childcare Survey 2026, finds that the expansion of 30 hours of funded childcare has significantly reduced out of pocket costs for eligible working parents in England, in some cases making part time childcare effectively free during term time.
By allowing funded hours to be stretched across the year, deducting closures from calculations, and enabling mixed‑provider models, the system is designed to work alongside all‑year childcare businesses, managing funding and fees transparently and within national limits, broadening parental choice.
The department has 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.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to ensure that funding is a) ring-fenced for the early years workforce and b) adequate for the needs of children with SEND.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department provides early years funding through the dedicated schools grant, which is ring-fenced for education and subject to pass through requirements. Under the School and Early Years Finance Regulations, local authorities must pass at least 97% of early years entitlement funding to providers in 2026/27, up from 96% in 2025/26, with up to 3% retained for centrally delivered functions. This means that the vast majority of funding reaches frontline provision.
In addition, from 2026/27 the Inclusive Early Years Fund will provide targeted support over the next three years to build capacity in the early years sector to meet the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The £200 million SEND training package announced in January also includes a new national training programme for all early years practitioners, which will be free to access.
We will be reviewing early years funding, including SEND funding, as part of the early years funding consultation this summer.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 guidance and reforms are implemented consistently across local authorities.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department continually monitors early years provision across England ensuring that all guidance and reforms are implemented.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England, about provision, specifically regarding the sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children.
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. Part B of the ‘Early education and childcare’ statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.
Where a local authority reports any sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues, and where needed, support them with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to promote the National Year of Reading in (a) early years settings, (b) primary schools, (c) secondary schools, (d) further education and (e) higher education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Year of Reading is a UK-wide campaign to address long-term declines in reading enjoyment.
It includes a major physical and online marketing campaign, as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout the year. Reading together is one of the most powerful ways to build a child’s language and communication skills, strengthen early bonds, and spark a lifelong love of reading, which is why early years is one of the priority groups for the National Year of Reading.
We are raising awareness of the National Year of Reading through a range of methods, such as via departmental communication channels, the National Year of Reading mailing list and social media, communications from the National Literacy Trust, and promotion via the English Hubs network.
All interested parties are encouraged to sign up to the National Year of Reading website for more information: https://goallin.org.uk/.
To further support reading for pleasure, this government has committed over £10 million of dormant assets funding to guarantee a library for every primary school by the end of this parliament, and a further £5 million for secondary schools to purchase books to encourage reading enjoyment amongst their pupils.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure universities and employers are aware of the differences between awarded GCSEs and iGCSEs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
GCSEs are long-standing, credible and well-respected by students, teachers, parents, further and higher education providers, and employers. International GCSEs, which include iGCSEs, are different qualifications. International GCSEs were introduced to serve the large international market for British qualifications and are also offered by some independent schools. Unlike GCSEs, international GCSEs are not regulated by Ofqual or funded for use in state schools. International GCSEs have also not counted in school performance tables since GCSEs were last reformed.
In 2019, the department published an analysis of GCSE and international GCSE progress and attainment data, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/comparing-international-gcses-and-gcses-in-england-2018. The publication noted it is difficult to make precise judgements about how standards in these qualifications compare given the clear differences between them.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what evidential basis her Department has based its assessment that GCSEs and iGCSEs are comparable qualifications.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
GCSEs are long-standing, credible and well-respected by students, teachers, parents, further and higher education providers, and employers. International GCSEs, which include iGCSEs, are different qualifications. International GCSEs were introduced to serve the large international market for British qualifications and are also offered by some independent schools. Unlike GCSEs, international GCSEs are not regulated by Ofqual or funded for use in state schools. International GCSEs have also not counted in school performance tables since GCSEs were last reformed.
In 2019, the department published an analysis of GCSE and international GCSE progress and attainment data, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/comparing-international-gcses-and-gcses-in-england-2018. The publication noted it is difficult to make precise judgements about how standards in these qualifications compare given the clear differences between them.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of whether iGCSEs result in higher grades than GCSEs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
GCSEs are long-standing, credible and well-respected by students, teachers, parents, further and higher education providers, and employers. International GCSEs, which include iGCSEs, are different qualifications. International GCSEs were introduced to serve the large international market for British qualifications and are also offered by some independent schools. Unlike GCSEs, international GCSEs are not regulated by Ofqual or funded for use in state schools. International GCSEs have also not counted in school performance tables since GCSEs were last reformed.
In 2019, the department published an analysis of GCSE and international GCSE progress and attainment data, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/comparing-international-gcses-and-gcses-in-england-2018. The publication noted it is difficult to make precise judgements about how standards in these qualifications compare given the clear differences between them.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential benefits of state schools offering iGCSEs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
GCSEs are long-standing, credible and well-respected by students, teachers, parents, further and higher education providers, and employers. International GCSEs, which include iGCSEs, are different qualifications. International GCSEs were introduced to serve the large international market for British qualifications and are also offered by some independent schools. Unlike GCSEs, international GCSEs are not regulated by Ofqual or funded for use in state schools. International GCSEs have also not counted in school performance tables since GCSEs were last reformed.
In 2019, the department published an analysis of GCSE and international GCSE progress and attainment data, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/comparing-international-gcses-and-gcses-in-england-2018. The publication noted it is difficult to make precise judgements about how standards in these qualifications compare given the clear differences between them.