Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) nurseries and (b) nursery school places in Wolverhampton North East constituency that will offer 30 hours of free childcare from September 2017.

Local authorities are responsible for making an assessment about the number of 30 hours free childcare places that providers plan to offer in their areas. To support them to deliver 30 hours, we are investing £100 million to create almost 18,000 additional early years places for eligible children to help meet demand from working parents. This is backed by £1 billion extra revenue per year for the early years entitlements, including £300 million per year to increase the funding rates paid to nurseries, pre-schools and childminders that choose to deliver the offer. This means that Wolverhampton local authority will see an increase in their hourly funding rate to £4.68.