Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to expand childcare to 30 hours per week for all eligible families with children aged between nine months and three years from September 2025.

Expanding access to affordable and high quality childcare is key to breaking down barriers to opportunity and is one of the driving missions of this government.

From 2 September 2024, hundreds of thousands of eligible working parents of children from nine months old have begun to access 15 hours of government-funded early education per week.

The department is looking ahead to delivering the expansion to 30 funded hours from next September. Eligible working parents of children aged nine months and above will be able to access 30 hours (over 38 weeks a year) from the term following their child turning nine months to when they start school.

The department is already taking action to help deliver the additional places needed for the next phase and to deliver the remainder of the promised 3,000 school-based nurseries from 2026 onwards, with a greater focus on more disadvantaged families.