Children: Day Care

(asked on 26th October 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to ensure that local authorities are aware of their duty to provide sufficient accessible information to parents on their entitlement to free childcare.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 3rd November 2016

We conducted a full public consultation this year on the delivery model for implementing the expansion of the free entitlement to childcare offer to 30 hours for working parents of 3 and 4 year-olds. The consultation sought views on the changes that will be required of local authorities, and their Family Information Services, for ensuring better access to childcare information for parents and for ensuring the information is current. We published draft statutory guidance for local authorities and draft regulations with the consultation to clearly signal the envisaged changes to the current arrangements and we expect to publish the consultation response shortly.

We are engaging regularly with local authorities to ensure appropriate awareness of the change in the duty, including at the recent National Association of Family Information Services’ annual conference We will continue to work closely with local authorities to implement the changes required for the 30 hours free childcare entitlement.

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