Pre-school Education

(asked on 25th October 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2021 to Question 51660, on Pre-school Education, what assessment he has made of the consistency of early years services for children up to five years old across the UK.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 29th October 2021

Access to the government’s entitlement offers remain high. As of January 2021, 87% of all three year olds and 93% of all four year olds, including those in a reception place, were registered for some funded early education with 30 hours childcare benefitting around 330,000 children in January 2021.

In response to the Action for Children report entitled ‘Beyond reach: Barriers to accessing early years services for children’ published on 21 September 2021, the most common reason for not using childcare is preference. Around seven in ten (69%) parents who were not using childcare said they would rather look after their children themselves, while only 16% said it was because they could not afford childcare. More information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/853358/CEYSP_2019_Report.pdf#:~:text=Responses%20to%20the%20Childcare%20and%20Early%20Years%20Survey,prepare%20their%20child%20for%20school%20%2830%25%29%20%28Table%203.6%29.

The department’s Parent Poll, conducted by Ipsos MORI in July 2021, shows that more than nine in ten (94%) parents whose child used formal childcare before COVID-19 reported that their child was using formal childcare at the time of the interview. In addition, when comparing formal childcare use with the previous term (January to March 2021), 93% of children using formal childcare in the previous term were using formal childcare in July 2021, and just 5% were using no childcare at all (neither formal nor informal childcare). Among parents whose child was not receiving formal childcare in July 2021, the most common reasons were that the parent never uses formal childcare (23%), that the childcare available was too expensive (21%), and that childcare was not needed as the parent(s) was on maternity or paternity leave (18%). Only 6% of parents whose child was not receiving formal childcare said they would like to use formal childcare but have not been able to find a suitable provider. This is only approximately 2% of all parents. More information can be found here: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/childcare-use-perceived-impact-child-development-information-working-home-and-awareness-and-use.

We recognise that the needs of many parents will have changed dramatically in line with the reopening of the economy and the department continues to investigate how we can improve these experiences for parents.

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