Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the administrative burden on local authorities arising from the Government's 30-hours free childcare policy.

We are increasing our annual investment in the free early year’s entitlements by £1 billion per year by 2019-20. This includes over £300 million a year for a significant increase to Government funding rates.

We conducted a full public consultation on the delivery model for implementing the expansion of the free childcare entitlement to 30 hours for working parents of 3 and 4 year-olds, and published the Government response in November 2016 at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/565668/Government_response_-_30_hours_delivery_consultation.pdf.

In March 2017, we published a model agreement, which clearly sets out the Department’s expectations on what should be included in provider agreements for delivery of the free entitlements.

We are engaging regularly with local authorities; both directly and through our delivery contractor: Childcare Works, to ensure appropriate awareness of the 30 hour duty, and to support local authorities to deliver 30 hours.

We will continue to work closely with local authorities to implement the changes required for the 30 hours free childcare entitlement.