Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of families expected to benefit from the 30 hours of free childcare by council area in the East of England.

It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change. We are delivering more support to working families than ever before with the rollout of 30 hours government-funded childcare.

The department does not hold data on estimates of the numbers of families expected to benefit by area.

However, we do collect data on eligibility codes, which show the number of children, down to local authority level, who have benefitted. This information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/expansion-to-early-childcare-entitlements-eligibility-codes-issued-and-validated/2025-may.

This data is being updated periodically in response to the hours rollout.