Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on offering incentives to Early Years settings to provide 30 hours of free childcare places.

In April 2017, the department published operational guidance for local authorities and childcare providers, which highlights various case studies and different models of partnership working and their key features to help providers deliver the 30 hour’ entitlement. The guidance also provides online links to two toolkits specifically produced for providers to support partnership working across early years. The operational guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/30-hours-free-childcare-la-and-early-years-provider-guide.

The government continues to encourage providers to take advantage of the free packages of business support the department has invested in via Childcare Works and key sector organisations including National Day Nurseries Asssociation, Pre-School Learning Alliance and Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years. Guidance’s on these are available by accessing the following links: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-business-sustainability and www.childcareworks.co.uk.