Children: Day Care

(asked on 3rd April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to increase the number of available childcare places for parents working full-time.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 10th April 2019

The department has taken several steps to increase the number of available childcare places for parents working full-time. These include the following:

  • In June 2016, the department invited local authorities to apply to the Early Years Capital Fund, through which we have allocated £100 million of capital funding to help nurseries, pre-schools and playgroups to create additional places for eligible children from working families.

  • Further, in July 2018, we announced the School Nurseries Capital Fund. This is a £30 million capital fund which aims to create new high-quality, school-based nursery places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds.

  • The department has funded Childcare Works to provide expert support to local authorities and childcare providers about maintaining and improving sufficient childcare places in their local area. This has included national events focussing on sufficiency planning and bespoke support for local authorities to strengthen their sufficiency assessments. We have also promoted flexible childcare business models and allocated £7.7 million to 147 local authorities through our Delivery Support Fund, specifically to create additional 30 hours places.

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