Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the eligibility criteria for the extended 30 hours childcare offer to allow migrant parents with the right to work to access that offer.

The government expects migrants coming to the UK to be able to maintain and accommodate themselves without the support of public funds.

The department has not made an estimate of the numbers of families who are not eligible for 30 hours because they have no recourse to public funds. The department also does not hold data on what proportion of those individuals have children with British citizenship.

The new working parent entitlement, which will be rolled out in phases from April 2024, will be available to working parents who meet the eligibility criteria. These will be the same as the current 30 hours offer for three and four year-olds.

The free childcare entitlements for the children of working parents are not within the definition of ’public funds’ in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 or the Immigration Rules. However, there are requirements in the Childcare (Free of Charge for Working Parents) (England) Regulations 2022 for the parent, or one of the parents, not to be subject to immigration control, which means that where both parents have no recourse to public funds, they will not be eligible for the entitlements.

Parents with no recourse to public funds are, however, able to access the 15 hours free early education entitlement available for all three and four year-olds and, if eligible, 15 hours free early education for disadvantaged two-year-olds. In September 2022, the department extended eligibility for the two-year-old entitlement to disadvantaged families who have no recourse to public funds. This is because these entitlements are intended to support children's development and help prepare them for school.

The government has no current plans to extend the early years entitlements for working parents to families with no recourse to public funds.