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 enabling early years settings to accept voluntary financial contributions from parents to (a) support and (b) enrich learning.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

As the early years entitlements are expanded, it is vitally important they remain accessible and affordable for families. Paragraph A1.41 of the statutory guidance for local authorities says that they must take all steps available to ensure the entitlements are available free of charge to parents and that providers do not charge for certain types of services. This includes top up fees, materials, such as crafts, crayons and paper, business running costs, registration fees and non-refundable deposits as a condition of taking up an entitlements place, general charges and any additional fees not specifically listed and itemised as chargeable extras at A1.33. If a parent wishes to make a voluntary contribution then they can do so, provided they are not being charged for these sorts of services or items and that it is wholly voluntary.