Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure childcare options are accessible and flexible once the covid-19 social distancing measures are lifted.

The government is committed to ensuring that vulnerable children and critical workers are able to access childcare places at this time, and that the sector is ready and able to support the country’s recovery as social distancing measures are altered.

To help achieve this, the government has announced unprecedented support for businesses, including the early years sector, to protect against the impact of COVID-19. For childcare providers, this includes business rates relief for nurseries, a range of loans and grants, access to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for the proportion of their pay bill which could be considered to have been paid for from private income, access to the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, and continued early years entitlement funding for local authorities. The government is monitoring the impact these measures are having and keeps all policies under review.

The Department for Education has published guidance for the early years sector on the eligibility criteria for this support, including the interaction between early years entitlements funding and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care#sector-specific-guidance.

The department is having regular conversations with local government about the availability of childcare locally and will continue this as we move through the COVID-19 outbreak to recovery.