Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the affordability of childcare in (a) Lambeth, (b) Southwark and (c) London.

The Government uses a range of information to consider the affordability of childcare, including our Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents’[1]; independent surveys, such as the Family and Childcare Trust Annual Childcare Cost Surveys[2]; and the recent House of Lords Select Committee’s report on affordable childcare, to which we responded on 17 December, 2015[3].

We are committed to supporting hardworking parents with the costs of childcare, and to making childcare more affordable. That is why we will be investing an extra £1billion per annum by 2019-20 to help hardworking families with the cost of childcare.

We are already funding 15 hours a week of free early education for all three- and four-year-olds and for disadvantaged two-year-olds. This saves families around £2,500 per child per year. Through our Childcare Bill we are making plans to fund and deliver an additional 15 hours of free childcare for the working parents of three- and four-year olds from September 2017 (with early implementation in some areas from September 2016). This is worth around another £2,500 per child per year. We also continue to invest in the Early Years Pupil Premium.

We are introducing Tax-Free Childcare from early 2017, under which around 2 million families could benefit by up to £2,000 per child per year or £4,000 per child per year if a child is disabled.

For working parents on low and middle incomes, working tax credit pays up to 70% of their childcare costs and this will increase to 85% under Universal Credit from April 2016. This support will be available, for the first time, to those working fewer than 16 hours per week.

[1] www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2012-to-2013

[2] www.familyandchildcaretrust.org/childcare-cost-survey-2015

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/affordable-childcare-response-to-the-select-committee-report