Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle childcare deserts in rural areas.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, improving the life chances for every child and the work choices for every parent.

In the 2025/26 financial year alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for early years entitlements, a more than 30% increase compared to the 2024/25 financial year, so eligible working parents of children aged from nine months can access 30 hours of funded childcare from September this year. To support the sector during this period of expansion, the government is providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the early years expansion grant. We also announced the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium, increasing the rate by over 45% compared to the 2024/25 financial year, equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year. On top of this, providers will receive £25 million through the forthcoming National Insurance Contributions grant for public sector employers in the early years.

The government’s plan to deliver 3,000 school-based nurseries and will help deliver on our commitment to ensure families right across the country have access to high quality childcare and early education. Funding will be allocated to the first wave of nursery projects in spring 2025 to support delivery for the first cohort of places from September. We know that families in some areas are struggling to find childcare places which meet their needs, so we will be working with schools and local childcare providers to deliver much-needed places across all our communities.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the ’Early education and childcare’ statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. The department has regular contact with local authorities in England about the sufficiency of childcare and any issues being faced. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. We do not currently have any reports of sufficiency issues in any local authority.