Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will ensure that the level of Government funding provided to (a) Liverpool City Council and (b) Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council is sufficient to allow those local authorities to support the mandatory provision of 30 hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds.

By 2019-20, the government will be spending around £6 billion a year on childcare support, including £1 billion to deliver 30 hours of free childcare and pay the higher funding rates that we introduced in April 2017.

Our funding rates are based on evidence from our “Review of Childcare Costs”, which was described as “thorough and wide ranging” by the National Audit Office. Local authorities’ individual funding rates are set by the new early years national funding formula which takes account of relative children’s needs and costs of delivery.

Through ‘Childcare Works’, we are supporting all local authorities to deliver 30 hours of free childcare, and we are monitoring carefully its implementation.