Children: Day Care

(asked on 17th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of families that are eligible for (a) free childcare entitlements, (b) tax-free childcare and (c) maintained nursery school places and that do not take up that entitlement.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 23rd March 2020

A time series of the number and type of provider delivering the different funded childcare entitlements can be found within tables 12, 13 and 14 of the following statistical release: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2019. We do not publish what proportion of the childcare market this represents.

The attached table shows the recent estimate the Department for Education has made on the number of children benefiting from funded early education and the number eligible.

Figures for previous years on the number of children benefiting and the percentage of the eligible population this represents, can be found within Tables 1 to 8LA of the following statistical release: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2019.

The Department for Education does not hold data on the number of families who are eligible for Tax Free Childcare as HM Revenue & Customs are responsible for the administration of the Tax Free Childcare Scheme.

We recognise that maintained nursery schools are an important part of the early years sector and provide valuable services to disadvantaged children. However, the Department for Education does not hold data on the number of families who are eligible for a maintained school nursery place.

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