Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding allocated to nurseries to support the 30 hours free childcare entitlement for eligible children.

The government continues to support families with their childcare costs. Last October, we announced increases in our hourly rates for the 2 year old entitlement and in the vast majority of areas for the 3 and 4 year old entitlement, effective from April of this year.

We also announced that supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools will continue until the end of the financial year 2020-21. We are committed to supporting maintained nursery schools in the long term. Guidance on the use of free early education entitlements funding during the COVID-19 outbreak is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/use-of-free-early-education-entitlements-funding-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/use-of-free-early-education-entitlements-funding-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

We are planning to spend over £3.6 billion on our early education entitlements in 2020-21. Future funding is a matter for the next spending review.

We will continue to monitor the market closely through a range of research projects which provide insight into various aspects of the childcare and provider market.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, we have continued to pay the entitlements to local authorities as usual.

The government has also provided childcare providers with a range of measures to offer financial assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak, including business rates relief, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

On 20 July, we announced that we will fund childcare at the level we would have done before the COVID-19 outbreak until the end of the year. This will give nurseries and childminders another term of secure income, regardless of whether fewer children are attending.

We continue to work closely with the early years sector to understand how it can best be supported to ensure that sufficient childcare is available for those returning to work now, and for all families who need it in the longer term.