Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total cost to the public purse was of providing 30 hours of free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds in the (a) autumn 2018 and b) spring 2019 terms.

The government funds local authorities to deliver the early years entitlements on a financial year basis. Allocations for each of the 3 and 4-year old entitlements are:

Full details, including allocations for the other early years funding streams (15 hours entitlement for disadvantaged 2-year-old children, the early years pupil premium, disability access fund and maintained nursery schools supplementary funding) can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019.

Final funding allocations for 2018-19 will be updated in the summer using data from the January 2019 schools and early years census.