Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of current hourly rates for free and subsidised childcare; and what plans his Department has to review current funding levels.

The Government wants to support early years providers in delivering high quality care and education, which is why my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, recently announced funding to increase hourly rates for the Government’s free hours offers for 2020-21.

In total, the Department plans to spend over £3.6 billion on early education entitlements next year.

The Government recognises the need to keep the evidence base on costs up to date. We continue to monitor the nurseries and childcare market closely through a range of regular and one-off research projects which provide insight into various aspects of the market. That includes the 2018 Early Years Provider Costs report which looked at a representative sample of nurseries and childminders. This is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-and-childcare-statistics.