Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an estimate of the sufficiency of childcare provision in Stockton North constituency.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. At present, all local authorities report that they are fulfilling their duty to ensure sufficient childcare.

The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. Ofsted data currently shows that the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable, at 1.3 million places since August 2015. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-and-childcare-statistics.

The department also discusses sufficiency of provision in regular conversations with local authorities. Local authorities are not currently reporting any substantial sufficiency issues, and we have not seen a substantial number of parents unable to secure a childcare place.

The department is committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare. We collect data on the main characteristics of childcare and early years provision in England, and fees data can be broken down to local authority level. The latest data for Stockton-on-Tees local authority shows that the mean hourly fee band for two-year-old children in 2021 is £5.75, and £5.50 for three and 4-year-olds.