Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional support he plans to provide for nursery schools closed since 21 June 2021 as a result of levels of covid-19 infection or self-isolation.

The government wants to support nurseries, pre-schools and childminders during this uncertain time, which is why we have spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past 3 years on our early education entitlements, and have invested £44 million for the 2021/22 financial year, for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers for the government’s free childcare entitlement offers.

For the 2021/22 financial year, we have also increased the hourly funding rates for all local authorities by 8p an hour for the 2-year-old entitlement and, for the vast majority of areas, by 6p an hour for the 3-year-old and 4-year-old entitlement. This will pay for a rate increase that is higher than the costs that nurseries may face from the uplift to the national living wage in April. We have also increased the minimum funding floor, meaning no council can receive less than £4.44 per hour for the 3-year-old and 4-year-old entitlements.

As with other sectors, the COVID-19 outbreak has been an uncertain time for childcare providers. Our policy is to ensure that there are sufficient childcare places to meet demand from parents. Despite the level of uncertainty faced by providers over the COVID-19 outbreak, Ofsted data shows that as of 31 March 2021, the number of childcare places, offered by providers on the Early Years Register, has remained broadly stable since August 2015.

We have provided unprecedented support to early years providers during the COVID-19 outbreak, and settings have also had access to a range of business support packages, including the extended Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. As long as the staff in the nursery schools affected meet the criteria for the scheme, early years providers are still able to furlough their staff while that scheme remains in operation (for example, if settings have to close temporarily to manage local effects of COVID-19, such as infections).

Findings from the Childcare and Early Years Provider and Coronavirus survey have shown that, in November/December 2020, 74% of group-based providers have made use of the Furlough Scheme at any point. Findings of this survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/survey-of-childcare-and-early-years-providers-and-coronavirus-covid-19-wave-3.

Eligible nurseries may also have qualified for a business rates discount to help reduce the costs of their business rates bills during the COVID-19 outbreak. Eligible nurseries could get 100% off in the first 3 months of the 2021 to 2022 tax year, with 66% off for the rest of the 2021 to 2022 tax year which may help providers who have had a reduced income as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Additionally, eligible nurseries have been able to access recovery loans to help with access to loans and other types of finance, so that they can recover after the COVID-19 outbreak and transition period.

We liaise regularly with local authorities, and they have not reported to us a significant number of parents unable to secure a childcare place, either during this term or at any time since early years settings re-opened fully on 1 June 2020. Where parents have been unable to temporarily secure a childcare place (for example, due to their usual setting being temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak), this has been able to be quickly resolved locally, and local authorities are not reporting significant sufficiency of supply issues.

We continue to work with local authorities and the sector to ensure there is sufficient, safe and affordable childcare for those who need it most.