Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase the availability of childcare in High Peak constituency.

Ensuring that parents are able to access affordable and high-quality childcare is a priority for this government. As an initial step, the department is progressing work to deliver 3,000 new nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools.

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. 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.