Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of childcare and early education funding on the number of (a) childminders and (b) nurseries between 31 August and 31 December 2017; and if he will make a statement.

The government is spending a record amount on childcare support, £6 billion by 2019-20. This includes £1 billion a year to deliver 30 hours of free childcare and fund the increase in rates that we introduced in April 2017. We have always been clear that getting the funding right is critical to the successful delivery of the government’s early years entitlements.

Ofsted publishes regular statistics on the number of providers on its Early Years and General Childcare Registers. The most recent statistics, covering the 31 August to 31 December period on this are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-december-2017. The number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable at 1.3 million since 2012, with a slight increase of almost 1,600 places in the last reporting period.