Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to work with local authorities to support the early years sector in Romford constituency.

This government is committed to breaking down the barriers to opportunity and that starts by ensuring every child has the best start in life. High-quality early education and childcare is essential to supporting this.

By 2027/28, this government expects to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours helping working families with their childcare costs. We have committed to ensuring that 30 hours of government-funded childcare is available for eligible working parents of children aged 9 months to the time they start school, by September 2025. This is the largest expansion of funded childcare ever and will remove barriers to work for nearly half a million parents with a child under 3 in England.

​The Romford constituency is within the area covered by Havering local authority, who, under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, 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. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2.

The department worked closely with Havering local authority as they delivered the first two stages of the early entitlement expansion, and we continue to engage with them regularly as they prepare for September 2025. Currently no local authorities are reporting that eligible children are unable to access early years places.

If through our support, Havering local authority report any sufficiency challenges, we will where possible support them with any specific requirements. We have a delivery support contractor, Childcare Works, in place to support local authorities and providers to deliver the early years expansion.

Finally, on top of over £8 billion through the core funding rates, we are providing an additional £75 million grant for 2025/26 to support the sector in this pivotal year as they grow the places and the workforce needed to deliver the final phase of expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025. We know how important the details of funding arrangements are to local authorities and providers and so we will provide further details on how this grant will work as soon as possible.