Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the provision of 30-hours of free childcare on the finances of families in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

On 7 July, the department published our ‘Best Start in life Strategy’, which sets out how we will make real change happen for families across the country.

From September 2025, eligible working parents will be able to access 30 hours of funded childcare a week, over 38 weeks of the year, from the term after their child turns nine months until they start school. This will save eligible families using all 30 hours nationally up to £7,500 on average.

According to the ‘Childcare and early years provider survey’, this would be higher (£7,900) in Bath and North East Somerset due to higher childcare fees, though these estimates are likely to be more variable due to a smaller sample size. The survey can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8919d3d0-fd4f-4adb-8ae2-08ddbed6edd3. To calculate this estimation the department has used local authority data from Bath and North East Somerset in the absence of constituency-level childcare fee data.

A recent Coram report shows the average cost to parents of a 25 hour nursery place for children under three in England has halved between 2024 and 2025.