Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of childcare providers restricting funded childcare entitlement hours to fixed sessions on the ability of working parents to access their full entitlement.

​​The department does not hold the requested data.

​​However, as part of the childcare and early years survey of parents carried out by department, parents are asked whether they were able to find term-time childcare that fits in with their working hours or their partner’s working hours. This is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents/2025.

​​The most recent results are for 2025. Among couple families with one or both parents in work and working lone-parent families, 68% agreed that they could find term-time childcare that fits their working hours (19% strongly agree; 49% agree), 9% neither agreed nor disagreed, 11% disagreed and 11% reported that they do not use or need formal childcare. Findings are based on 1,418 couple families with children aged 0 to 4. Percentages do not add up to exactly 100 due to rounding.

​​Local authorities should ensure sufficient flexible provision to meet parental needs and help parents access places that support parents' work commitments.