Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to nurseries pricing structures on families who usually use fewer than 30 funded hours of nursery provision and are being asked to increase these hours to ensure nurseries can keep operating.

The department is committed to rolling out the expanded childcare entitlements, working hand in hand with the early years sector.

In 2026/27, the government is expecting to spend over £9 billion on early years entitlements, supporting more parents to balance family life and work.

The department updated existing statutory guidance for local authorities, which emphasises transparency at the heart of how the entitlement should be passed on to parents.

Providers should set out how many government-funded hours parents are receiving, to ensure parents understand their usage of the entitlements.

Providers remain able to charge parents for any additional, private paid hours according to their usual terms and conditions, provided taking up private paid hours is not a condition of accessing the entitlements place.