Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average hourly cost per child is to the public purse of the additional 15 hours free childcare provided for under the Childcare Act 2016 in (a) the UK, (b) the North West and (c) Rochdale.

Currently the national average hourly rate paid by the Department for Education to local authorities in England is £4.56. From April 2017, the national average funding rate paid by the Department will increase to £4.88 per hour for three- and four-year-olds. This includes the average spend on the early years pupil premium which, at current rates, is approximately 5p per child per hour. More government investment and support than ever before is going towards high-quality early education: funding for the early years entitlements will increase from £2.7 billion per year to £3.9 billion per year during the course of this Parliament, and this includes an uplift of £300 million per year.

We recognise that the current funding system for funded early education creates unfair and unjustifiable differences between areas and providers. That is why we have announced that we will introduce a national funding formula for early years. The Government will be consulting on detailed proposals later this year.

These figures refer to England as the early years entitlements are a devolved matter.