Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase childcare provision in (a) Bournemouth East constituency and (b) the South West.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.

In the government’s 2023 Spring Budget, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. By the 2027/28 financial year, this government expects to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping families with pre-school children with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever and is set to save working families using the full 30 funded hours up to £6,500 per year from when their child is nine months until they are five years old by September 2025.

Funding will be key to delivering the existing and expanded childcare entitlements. The department has substantially uplifted the hourly rate paid to local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers. In the 2024/25 financial year, the department is investing over £400 million additional funding to deliver a significant uplift to hourly rates, building on the £204 million of additional funding paid in September.

To support the sector further to deliver the expansion of childcare support, the government is confirming that the hourly rate that providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers will increase in line with the metric used in the Spring Budget 2023. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an additional £500 million of investment over financial years 2025/26 and 2026/27.

Alongside increasing funding rates, the government is allocating £100 million in capital funding to local authorities in the 2023/24 financial year to support the expansion of childcare places for eligible working parents and to increase the supply of wraparound care in primary schools. The funding is anticipated to deliver thousands of new places across the country.

Following the department’s consultation on changes to the early years foundation stage framework, the department has introduced flexibilities that aim to make things easier for providers, as well as continuing to explore how the department can support the sector to deliver the additional places that will be required.

The department is ensuring a phased implementation of the expansion to the 30 hours offer to allow the market to develop the necessary capacity. On 2 February 2024, the department launched ‘Do something big, Work with small children’, a new national recruitment campaign to support the recruitment and retention of talented staff to support the expansion of the 30 hours offer. This campaign will raise the profile of the sector, support the recruitment of talented staff, and recognise the lifelong impact those working in early years and childcare have on children and their families.

The department is also continuing to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places across the sector. The department’s childcare and early years provider survey shows that both the number of places available and the workforce has increased since 2022.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.

Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, supports the local authority with any specific requirements through the department’s childcare sufficiency support contract.