Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2019 to Question 6463 on Children: Day Care, what research the Government has carried out since 2018 to ensure that the evidence base on the costs of providing early years education is kept up to date.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, and ministers at the department, meet regularly with colleagues across government, including HM Treasury, to discuss the Department for Education's agenda. Future funding for the early years is being considered as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review process, alongside wider public expenditure.

The survey published by Coram is part of the evidence base available for consideration in the Spending Review and is one of several pieces of research on the provider market. We continue to monitor the market closely through a range of research projects which provide insight into various aspects of the childcare and provider market.

The department carries out its own regular research on the cost of delivering childcare. The 2018 provider finances report is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/provider-finances-evidence-from-early-years-providers.

The Department for Education is due to publish a 2019 provider finances report in the autumn.

The provider finances reports include data on the total coast and total income of delivering childcare, the variation in unit costs (an approximate measure of the average cost per child per hour for all children in the setting) and staff hourly pay, and patterns in parent-paid hourly fees for parents.

The 2019 Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers includes information on the costs of providing childcare and is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/845080/SCEYP_2019_Main_Report_Nov19.pdf.