Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to ensure that all local authorities are aware of their duty to clarify the complaints procedure for parents in relation to their entitlement to free childcare.

The Department for Education is already clear in statutory guidance that local authorities should have a complaints procedure for parents who are not satisfied that their child has received their early education place, or are unhappy with any aspect of the way in which they have received it, and should publicise this to parents. This is set out at C.7 in Statutory Guidance, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/351592/early_education_and_childcare_statutory_guidance_2014.pdf

The Department will also include this in the model agreement and the parental declaration template, annexed to the model agreement, which will be published later in the year. The new model agreement and parental declaration template will set out the Department’s expectations on what should be included in agreements between local authorities and childcare providers for delivery of the free early education entitlements for two-, three- and four-year-olds, in order to bring more consistent practice across different local authorities.