Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to support nurseries, childminders, and other early years providers in (a) Enfield North, (b) London and (c) England.

The department has spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past three years on early education entitlements, and the government will continue to support families with their childcare costs.

At the Spending Review on 27 October 2021, we announced that we are investing additional funding for the early years entitlements worth £160 million in the 2022-23 financial year, £180 million in 2023-24 and £170 million in 2024-25, compared to the current year. This is for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers for the government’s free childcare entitlement offers and reflects cost pressures as well as anticipated changes in the number of eligible children.

As a result of this additional funding, for 2022-23 we will increase the hourly funding rates for all local authorities by 21p an hour for the two-year-old entitlement and, for the vast majority of areas, by 17p an hour for the three and four-year-old entitlement. We are also increasing the minimum funding floor, meaning no council can receive less than £4.61 per hour for the three and four-year-old entitlements.

We continue to work with the early years sector and officials from the department are in regular telephone and email contact with Early Years Leads in all local authorities in England, including Enfield and the other 32 boroughs in the London region, to understand how they can best be supported to ensure that sufficient safe, appropriate and affordable childcare is available for those who need it now, and for all families who need it in the longer term.