Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the (a) allocated budget and (b) amount spent was for advertising the expanded childcare offer for children aged two before April 2024.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
For the 2024/25 financial year, the department has an allocated budget of £2.4 million for the Childcare Choices campaign. This includes promotion of the expanded childcare working entitlements for nine month olds, as well as the existing offers for two, three and four year olds. Final spending will be confirmed.
For the 2023/24 financial year, the department had an allocated budget of £1.4 million for the Childcare Choices campaign. This included promotion of the expanded childcare working entitlements for two year olds as well as the existing offers for three and four year olds.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the (a) allocated budget and (b) amount already spent is for advertising the expanded childcare offer for children aged nine months and above.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
For the 2024/25 financial year, the department has an allocated budget of £2.4 million for the Childcare Choices campaign. This includes promotion of the expanded childcare working entitlements for nine month olds, as well as the existing offers for two, three and four year olds. Final spending will be confirmed.
For the 2023/24 financial year, the department had an allocated budget of £1.4 million for the Childcare Choices campaign. This included promotion of the expanded childcare working entitlements for two year olds as well as the existing offers for three and four year olds.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many childcare places the 3,000 additional school-based nursery classrooms will provide.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High quality early education and childcare is a crucial opportunity to transform life chances.
In the coming months, the government will be setting out plans to deliver new places in 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools. This will include both school-run nurseries and schools partnering with private, voluntary and independent providers.
The department is working closely with schools, local authorities and providers to understand what is needed to deliver this, and to ensure provision meets the needs of families and schools and is opened in the right places.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many additional places will be required in September 2024 for the expanded childcare offer.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring that parents are able to access affordable and high quality childcare is a top priority. The department’s focus in reforming the system will be to ensure that there are greater and more equal opportunities to access early education for every family, and that there are greater opportunities for children to thrive and develop. As an initial step, the department is working to deliver new places in 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools. This will help deliver the expansion in childcare entitlements and ensure that a variety of different types of provision are available that suit the needs of different parents.
Based on assumptions around take-up, likely hours used and whether children are new or existing users of childcare, there is estimated to be demand of an additional 15,000 places for September 2024.
Thousands of children, aged from nine months, will get government-funded childcare for the first time, allowing them to access 15 hours a week, over 38 weeks a year, of high quality, accessible childcare.
Further information on the underpinning assumptions behind these estimates was published in the 2023 Spring Budget Policy costing information note: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66221ba8252f0d71cf757d2b/Spring_budget_2023_childcare_expansion_costing_note_information.pdf.
The department will continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare provision through regular conversations with local authorities.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many places will be required in September 2024 for the expanded childcare offer.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring that parents are able to access affordable and high quality childcare is a top priority. The department’s focus in reforming the system will be to ensure that there are greater and more equal opportunities to access early education for every family, and that there are greater opportunities for children to thrive and develop. As an initial step, the department is working to deliver new places in 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools. This will help deliver the expansion in childcare entitlements and ensure that a variety of different types of provision are available that suit the needs of different parents.
Based on assumptions around take-up, likely hours used and whether children are new or existing users of childcare, there is estimated to be demand of an additional 15,000 places for September 2024.
Thousands of children, aged from nine months, will get government-funded childcare for the first time, allowing them to access 15 hours a week, over 38 weeks a year, of high quality, accessible childcare.
Further information on the underpinning assumptions behind these estimates was published in the 2023 Spring Budget Policy costing information note: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66221ba8252f0d71cf757d2b/Spring_budget_2023_childcare_expansion_costing_note_information.pdf.
The department will continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare provision through regular conversations with local authorities.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many parents have applied for government-funded childcare codes for September 2024; and how many codes have been validated by childcare providers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since 2 September 2024, eligible working parents of children from nine months old can access 15 hours of government-funded early education per week.
Take up from parents is roughly in line with the position at this point in time prior to the April phase of the rollout for eligible working parents of two year olds. Internal figures show a similar trajectory, with over 200,000 entitlement codes validated by providers, meaning parents have secured a place. Thanks to the hard work of local authorities and childcare providers, the department is confident delivery is on track.
The department has not published figures yet because it normally takes a few weeks for local authorities and providers to have validated codes following the 31 August application deadline. The department will be publishing data on codes issued and codes validated for September 2024 in due course.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to expand childcare to 30 hours per week for all eligible families with children aged between nine months and three years from September 2025.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Expanding access to affordable and high quality childcare is key to breaking down barriers to opportunity and is one of the driving missions of this government.
From 2 September 2024, hundreds of thousands of eligible working parents of children from nine months old have begun to access 15 hours of government-funded early education per week.
The department is looking ahead to delivering the expansion to 30 funded hours from next September. Eligible working parents of children aged nine months and above will be able to access 30 hours (over 38 weeks a year) from the term following their child turning nine months to when they start school.
The department is already taking action to help deliver the additional places needed for the next phase and to deliver the remainder of the promised 3,000 school-based nurseries from 2026 onwards, with a greater focus on more disadvantaged families.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many additional staff will be required in September 2024 for the expanded childcare offer.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department knows that to deliver the expanded early years entitlements, the sector will need additional staff. In total, the department estimated that compared to 2023, the new entitlements will create an increased need for workers in the region of 9,000 in September 2024.
In 2023, the number of staff increased by 12,900 (4%), from 334,400 in 2022, to 347,300 in 2023. This was before the department introduced interventions to support the growth of the workforce.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the future of the Behaviour Hubs programme.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Delivery of the Behaviour Hubs will run until the end of March 2025.
Funding beyond the end of March 2025 is subject to the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the annual cost of providing free breakfast clubs in all primary schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to making quick progress on delivering breakfast clubs in every primary school. Breakfast clubs will remove barriers to opportunity, by providing a supportive start to the day, ensuring every child, no matter their circumstances, is well prepared for school and ready to achieve.
The department has already taken decisive action by announcing in the King’s Speech that, under the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, every primary school in England will offer a free breakfast club. Legislating for breakfast club provision will give schools the certainty they need to plan for the future. Before the legislation comes into force, the department will work with the sector to make sure the right support, including funding, is in place.