Children: Day Care

(asked on 10th April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children by years of age receive the 30 hour funded childcare entitlement in England.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 16th April 2019

The government is committed to ensuring all parents who are eligible for the 30 hours free childcare entitlement are able to take up a place that suits their childcare needs.

Data from the National Statistics release ‘Education Provision for Children Under 5 Years of Age in England (January 2018)’ suggests around 3 out of 4 eligible children have taken up some extended hours, however it is not possible to generate an equivalent figure at local authority level due to the relatively small population that we are estimating within sub-national geographies. As at 31 January 2019, 5,728 30 hours eligibility codes had been issued in West Sussex for the Spring term, 5,144 of these had been validated and as at 28 March 2019 5, 230 children were taking up a place in the West Sussex.

We plan to spend around £3.5 billion on our early education entitlements this year alone – more than any other government. Our funding rates for the early education entitlements were based on our Review of Childcare Costs, described as “thorough and wide ranging” by the National Audit Office. We recognise the need to keep our evidence base on all aspects of early years sector costs up to date and we continue to monitor the provider market closely through a range of regular and one off research projects. That included the 2018 Early Years Provider Costs report which looked at a representative sample of providers, both in terms of provider type and geography, and gives an insight into various aspects of the provider market.

Data published by Ofsted in November 2018 shows that the number of childcare places available has remained broadly stable since 2012. Since the rollout of 30 hours commenced in September 2017, the sector has risen to the challenge with more than 340,000 3 and 4 year old children benefitting from a place and we receive contact regularly from the sector on this and associated topics. We are now in the second year of national delivery and an estimated 325,000 children were in a 30 hours place in the spring term 2019 – this is an increase on the spring term 2018 and 92% of the codes were issued. Although childcare providers do not have to offer the free 30 hours, our 2018 Providers Survey shows that the majority of providers in England with 3 to 4 year olds are offering and delivering 30 hours.

The data relating to the number of children receiving 30 hours in England is published within tables 5LA and 7LA in the ‘Education Provision for Children under 5 Years of Age (January 2018)’ statistical publication, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018.

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