Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason differences in (a) size, (b) facilities and (c) delivery model of nurseries are not considered when determining the hourly rate of funding per child.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life. This is key to the government’s Plan for Change, which starts with reaching the milestone of a record number of children being ready for school. That also means ensuring the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver entitlements and high quality early years provision going forward.
In the 2025/26 financial year alone, the department has provided over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, increasing to over £9 billion in 2026/27. We have announced the largest ever increase to Early Years Pupil Premium since its introduction and have delivered a significant tranche of supplementary funding of £75 million through the Early Years Expansion Grant.
The early years market is vibrant and diverse, made up of a range of for-profit and not-for-profit provider types. The department aims to distribute funding fairly, efficiently and transparently across the country and across provider types. The hourly funding rate paid to local authorities is designed to recognise the average costs across different provider types, reflecting staff and non-staff costs.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce levels of funding pressures for nurseries.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life. This is key to the government’s Plan for Change, which starts with reaching the milestone of a record number of children being ready for school. That also means ensuring the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver entitlements and high quality early years provision going forward.
In the 2025/26 financial year alone, the department has provided over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, increasing to over £9 billion in 2026/27. We have announced the largest ever increase to Early Years Pupil Premium since its introduction and have delivered a significant tranche of supplementary funding of £75 million through the Early Years Expansion Grant.
The early years market is vibrant and diverse, made up of a range of for-profit and not-for-profit provider types. The department aims to distribute funding fairly, efficiently and transparently across the country and across provider types. The hourly funding rate paid to local authorities is designed to recognise the average costs across different provider types, reflecting staff and non-staff costs.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of making care experience a protected characteristic on (a) inequities and (b) levels of discrimination against (i) children in care and (ii) care leavers.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to tackling the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes experienced by care-experienced young people. We believe the most effective way to address this is by raising awareness of the challenges they face, which will be achieved through introducing corporate parenting responsibilities across government departments and relevant public bodies.
By placing a duty on government departments and relevant public bodies, the corporate parenting duty will create a culture shift to support improved outcomes for young people in the care system and those with care experience.
The legislation captures the bodies that we believe have the biggest impact on the lives of children in care and care leavers, including departments and bodies linked to educational attainment, employment support, and the criminal justice system. The government does not have plans to amend legislation to make care experience a protected characteristic.
The impact of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and child rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of making care experience a protected characteristic on care leavers within the (a) workplace and (b) criminal justice system.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to tackling the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes experienced by care-experienced young people. We believe the most effective way to address this is by raising awareness of the challenges they face, which will be achieved through introducing corporate parenting responsibilities across government departments and relevant public bodies.
By placing a duty on government departments and relevant public bodies, the corporate parenting duty will create a culture shift to support improved outcomes for young people in the care system and those with care experience.
The legislation captures the bodies that we believe have the biggest impact on the lives of children in care and care leavers, including departments and bodies linked to educational attainment, employment support, and the criminal justice system. The government does not have plans to amend legislation to make care experience a protected characteristic.
The impact of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and child rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of making care experience a protected characteristic on care leavers' quality of life.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to tackling the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes experienced by care-experienced young people. We believe the most effective way to address this is by raising awareness of the challenges they face, which will be achieved through introducing corporate parenting responsibilities across government departments and relevant public bodies.
By placing a duty on government departments and relevant public bodies, the corporate parenting duty will create a culture shift to support improved outcomes for young people in the care system and those with care experience.
The legislation captures the bodies that we believe have the biggest impact on the lives of children in care and care leavers, including departments and bodies linked to educational attainment, employment support, and the criminal justice system. The government does not have plans to amend legislation to make care experience a protected characteristic.
The impact of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and child rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of making care experience a protected characteristic on the educational attainment of children in care.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to tackling the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes experienced by care-experienced young people. We believe the most effective way to address this is by raising awareness of the challenges they face, which will be achieved through introducing corporate parenting responsibilities across government departments and relevant public bodies.
By placing a duty on government departments and relevant public bodies, the corporate parenting duty will create a culture shift to support improved outcomes for young people in the care system and those with care experience.
The legislation captures the bodies that we believe have the biggest impact on the lives of children in care and care leavers, including departments and bodies linked to educational attainment, employment support, and the criminal justice system. The government does not have plans to amend legislation to make care experience a protected characteristic.
The impact of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and child rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2025 to Question 66737 on Pre-school Education: Inspections, how much funding his Department plans on allocating to Ofsted to increase the frequency and quality of Early Years Register inspections.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Further funding is expected to be provided across the next three financial years by the department to Ofsted to increase the frequency and quality of Early Years Register inspections. This is to be agreed between the department and Ofsted.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to produce educational videos to aid early years staff in (a) reading and (b) learning the Early years foundation stage statutory framework.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department is committed to supporting early years practitioners and teachers to deliver the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework well for the benefit of all children, and already provides a range of educational video content.
Our online service ‘Help for Early Years Providers’ includes videos designed to help practitioners understand and implement the EYFS framework.
The ‘Foundation Years’ service provides subscribers with the latest EYFS news, information and resources including vodcasts.
The ‘Early years child development training’ resource provides online training, including video content, to build practitioners’ understanding of child development and the EYFS framework. This can be accessed here: https://child-development-training.education.gov.uk/.
The Education Endowment Foundation’s ‘Early Years Evidence Store’ is regularly updated with evidence-based research to help educators to understand and reflect on their practice, including video content.
The department is producing a package of support for teachers completing the EYFS profile assessment, to build their confidence in their role as assessors. This new support will include online resources and videos.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that early years staff in all settings read (a) the relevant Early years foundation stage statutory framework, last updated on 1 September 2025, in full and (b) NHS guidance on Sudden infant death syndrome, last updated on 21 October 2021.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Early years providers are legally required to adhere to the requirements with the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework, which can be read in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2. It is therefore providers’ responsibility to ensure they and their staff are following the current version of the framework and that they understand the requirements within.
Within the framework there is a requirement for providers to ensure that babies are placed down to sleep safely in line with the latest NHS guidance on reducing the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Further information can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sudden-infant-death-syndrome-sids/.
The department promotes EYFS framework updates and relevant health and safeguarding guidance through a range of communication channels, including emails sent to local authorities for dissemination to all early years settings, and, where appropriate, through webinars and vodcasts hosted on the Foundation Years website, which can be accessed here: https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2025 to Question 67189 on Pre-school Education: Accidents and Death, whether official communication channel exists to communicate early years foundation stage updates to every early years setting.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
When changes are made to the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework, the department ensures there is a comprehensive programme of communications and engagement with the sector to support understanding of the changes. The framework can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.
Updates are communicated through a range of mechanisms, including emails sent to local authorities for dissemination to all early years settings and, where appropriate, through webinars and vodcasts hosted on the Foundation Years website, which can be accessed here: https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/. These are promoted through multiple channels, including local authorities, stronger practice hubs and sector representatives.