Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment the Government has made of the effect of 30 hours free childcare on the provision of (a) universal offer places and (b) funded two-year old places.

The independent evaluations of 30 hours’ early implementation and early rollout found no evidence of any adverse effects on the universal and two year-old free entitlements.

The early rollout evaluation report showed that 30% of providers delivering 30 hours’ places increased their overall free entitlement places, and only 1% decreased places.

The early implementer evaluation was published on 17 July 2017 and the early rollout evaluation was published on 31 August. The reports can be found here:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/30-hours-free-childcare-early-implementation-evaluation.

• https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/641148/Frontier_-_Evaluation_of_early_rollout_of_30_hours_free_childcare.pdf