Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will take steps to protect working parents eligible for free early education and childcare from charging for consumables by some nurseries.

The department is taking steps to protect parents from unfair charging practices by some nurseries, as we announced last month, as part of our wider effort to ensure that parents can access and afford the hours they are entitled to. More information about the announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/school-based-nurseries-plan-kicks-off-with-15-million-funding.

The department is currently looking at updating the early years statutory guidance as part of its regular review, in order to ensure that the guidance around charging is both clear and fair for local authorities, early years providers and parents and that the hours are accessible and affordable for all families that need them.

The department will be seeking to engage with providers, local authorities and other relevant stakeholder groups, including those representing parents, to discuss its proposed updates to the statutory guidance for local authorities and to seek feedback on how the guidance can be improved.

If parents believe they are experiencing unfair consumable charges, they should raise this with their local authority, who will be able to offer the appropriate support and next steps on clarifying appropriate charging with providers.