Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that early years education providers are not disadvantaged by restrictions on charging flexibility for funded childcare hours.

Through our Best Start in Life strategy, we are focused on reforming the childcare system, delivering on our plan for change.

Government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of funded, high-quality, flexible childcare and the 15 or 30 hours must be able to be accessed free of charge to parents. There must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours. However, this does not prevent providers from charging for food and other consumables, as long as these charges are voluntary.

Charges applied by private childcare providers for non-funded provision are established independently by providers and are regarded as a private business matter between parents and providers.