Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that childcare providers are not able to charge for childcare costs on days where they are unable to deliver the service.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, improving the life chances for every child and the work choices for every parent.

Eligible children are entitled to 570 or 1140 hours of free early education and childcare per year. If parents are concerned that they are not receiving their child’s full entitlement, they should raise this with their local authority.

The private paid hours delivered by childcare providers across the country are subject to private arrangements between providers and parents. Details of these services, including whether payment is required for days when the provider is unable to deliver services, are set out in each individual agreement. Where issues arise in relation to such agreements, parents and providers may want to consider guidance from the Competitions and Markets Authority on consumer law: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cma-consumer-enforcement-guidance.

As part of the department’s regular review of the early years statutory guidance for local authorities, we have engaged with local authorities, providers and groups representing parents on the issue of charging. We will consider how to better support local authorities to protect parents from overcharging.