Asked by: Simon Danczuk (Independent - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of the existing 15 hours of free childcare that is provided by nurseries that are (a) private, (b) voluntary and (c) independent.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The information requested is presented within the Main tables: SFR20/2015 at the following link:
Provision for children under 5 years of age: January 2015 - Publications - GOV.UK
Figures for 2-year-olds can be found within Table 1a and for 3- and 4-year-olds, within Table 2a.
Asked by: Simon Danczuk (Independent - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of (a) private, (b) voluntary and (c) independent nurseries which will provide the additional 15 hours of childcare under the provisions of the Childcare Act 2016.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Department for Education publishes data on the number of children benefitting from funded early education places by type of provider and local authority. The latest information can be found in the Statistical First Release Provision for children under five years of age in England: January 2015 (SFR20/2015).
As part of our ongoing development of our 30 hours implementation plans we are consulting extensively with key stakeholders, including representative organisations and other individual providers.
The government will continue to support the growth and creation of new places to deliver the 30 hours funded entitlement through investing at least £50 million of capital investment to support the creation of additional early years places. This is in addition to our commitment to capital funding to create nursery provision as part of new Free Schools which we estimate will create at least 4,000 places.
Asked by: Simon Danczuk (Independent - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average hourly cost per child is to the public purse of the additional 15 hours free childcare provided for under the Childcare Act 2016 in (a) the UK, (b) the North West and (c) Rochdale.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Currently the national average hourly rate paid by the Department for Education to local authorities in England is £4.56. From April 2017, the national average funding rate paid by the Department will increase to £4.88 per hour for three- and four-year-olds. This includes the average spend on the early years pupil premium which, at current rates, is approximately 5p per child per hour. More government investment and support than ever before is going towards high-quality early education: funding for the early years entitlements will increase from £2.7 billion per year to £3.9 billion per year during the course of this Parliament, and this includes an uplift of £300 million per year.
We recognise that the current funding system for funded early education creates unfair and unjustifiable differences between areas and providers. That is why we have announced that we will introduce a national funding formula for early years. The Government will be consulting on detailed proposals later this year.
These figures refer to England as the early years entitlements are a devolved matter.
Asked by: Simon Danczuk (Independent - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the (a) likely level of uptake for the extra 15 hour a week childcare provided for under the Childcare Act 2016 and (b) number of people eligible for that extra childcare under the provisions of that Act.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Government estimates that around 390,000 three- and four-year-olds will be eligible for the additional 15 hours of free childcare, and we expect that the majority of parents with eligible children will want to take up this generous offer. During our 2015 consultation, we conducted an online survey and of nearly 20,000 respondents, around 89% said they would take up the additional hours if they were available now.
Asked by: Simon Danczuk (Independent - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will estimate the proportion of two year old children receiving their full entitlement of free childcare (a) nationally, (b) in each region, (c) in each socio economic group and (d) in each ethnic group.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The early learning for two-year-olds programme was introduced in September 2013 for the benefit of 20% of the most disadvantaged children in England. In September 2014 the programme was expanded to 40% of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds in England. The taking up of a place is voluntary and parents can choose to use it as much or as little as they wish.
Local authorities reported that, at June 2015, the percentages of eligible 2-year-old children benefitting from funded early education places by region were as set out below:
Government Area | Regional take up figure | Regional take up percentage |
East | 15848 | 64.7% |
East Midlands | 13032 | 58.4% |
London | 24320 | 50.8% |
North East | 10536 | 74.4% |
North West | 28215 | 69.2% |
South East | 20405 | 63.9% |
South West | 14482 | 69.7% |
West Midlands | 19642 | 58.5% |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 20379 | 66.3% |
Total and national take up | 166,859 | 62.6% |
The Department does not record information about the number of children taking up their entitlement by socio-economic group or ethnic group.
Asked by: Simon Danczuk (Independent - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the budget of the Office of the Children's Commissioner was spent on administration in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The matter of the Office for the Children’s Commissioner’s budget, and the proportion of it spent on administration in each of the last five years, is for the Office for the Children’s Commissioner, which is independent.
I have asked the Office for the Children’s Commissioner to write to you in response to this question and to place a copy of the letter in the House of Commons Library.