Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the pilot of the 30 hours free childcare entitlement.

8 local authorities started delivering the 30 hours childcare entitlement in September 2016, providing invaluable learning ahead of full rollout in September 2017. Over 3,600 children have already accessed an extended entitlement place and we expect this to rise to around 5,000 children over the course of the pilot.

The Department has since commissioned an independent evaluation of early implementation of the extended entitlement. This evaluation will focus on generating learning that can be used by Early Implementers and all local authorities ahead of national rollout.

Learning from the early implementers will be shared throughout the year. There will be a national findings event in the spring next year, and a formal evaluation report will be published next summer.