Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Kennedy Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Indeed. Nobody is lying to this House. That is clear and we are grateful.

[Seema Kennedy (South Ribble) (Con)]

11. What plans she has to support working families by helping provide extra childcare.

[Andrew Bingham (High Peak) (Con)]

13. What plans she has to support working families by helping provide extra childcare.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

We have many plans to support hard-working families with the cost of childcare. In addition to the 30 hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds which we are introducing in this Parliament, we have legislated for free childcare to give parents 20% off the cost of their childcare up to £10,000, and the childcare element of universal credit will be going up from 70% to 85%.

[Seema Kennedy]

Quality is vital in early-years education. Will my hon. Friend set out the steps being taken to ensure that childcare provision in my constituency is of the highest possible quality?

[Mr Gyimah]

That is an excellent question, because the debate often focuses on affordability and availability of childcare, but obviously quality is vitally important, too. We are focusing on quality by ensuring that we raise the status of the early-years workforce. That is why we are raising the standards of literacy and numeracy of the level 3 people entering the profession, and we are also raising the early-years bar through the Ofsted accountability framework so that nurseries have to perform that bit better.