Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of free childcare places are available in child minders during out of school term times in (a) Suffolk Coastal constituency, (b) Suffolk and (c) England.

The number of childminders and state-funded nursery schools delivering government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 in Suffolk and in England in each year from 2018 to 2023 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d229a86f-25c9-4388-af45-08dbfa4e7cea.

Statistics relating to government funded early years provision for children aged 2 to 4 are published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ National Statistics publication which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5. The latest statistics containing January 2023 data were published in July 2023 and the next release containing January 2024 data is expected to be published in June 2024.

Figures at parliamentary constituency level are not readily available.

The department does not centrally hold figures on the number and proportion of free childcare places that are available in nurseries and childminders during out of school term times.