Children: Day Care

(asked on 29th June 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the timetable is for software allowing early years providers to check eligibility for 30-hours free childcare to be available for use.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 7th July 2017

The Department for Education has provided £2.15m funding to enable local authorities to develop IT solutions for automated eligibility code-checking for 30 hours free childcare. By automating the validation of 30 hours eligibility codes we aim to reduce any administrative burdens on the Early Years providers and local authorities. The Department has delivered this funding to develop IT solutions in addition to providing the existing ability to check eligibility codes via a web browser.

Some local authorities have chosen to use software suppliers for their IT solutions and the Department for Education is unable to intervene in these individual commercial relationships. However, the Department has previously discussed with the software suppliers their capability to deliver IT solutions to check 30 hours eligibility codes prior to September 2017.

As of 29 June 2017, 109 local authorities have fully developed and accredited their IT solutions and the Department for Education forecast is that 150 local authorities will have IT solutions implemented by the end of August 2017.

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