Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that disadvantaged children have access to good quality childcare.

All local authorities in England have a legal duty to ensure all three- and four-year-olds and the most disadvantaged two-year-olds are able to take up a funded early education place free of charge. Each eligible child is entitled to 570 hours of free early learning a year, equivalent to 15 hours a week of early education for 38 weeks per year. Settings delivering the funded early education entitlement are subject to inspection by Ofsted.

The early years pupil premium, which was introduced in April this year, provides nurseries and schools delivering the early education entitlement for three- and four-year-old children with an extra 53p an hour for each eligible child to help them raise the quality of their setting and so close the gap in school readiness between disadvantaged children and their peers. The Government has made £50 million available for the early years pupil premium in 2015-16.