Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that local authorities have the (a) financial and (b) other capacity to deliver free childcare to those people who are most deprived.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Since September 2014 around 40% of disadvantaged two-year-olds have been entitled to an early education place. In 2012 the Government contracted ‘Achieving 2-year-olds’ to support local authorities in expanding the two-year-old entitlement. This support is working, and data from the latest voluntary survey of local authorities shows that an estimated 182,000 children were funded during the seven week period in the autumn of 2015, as take-up of the entitlement has increased to 72% of eligible children. This is building on local authorities’ successful delivery of 15 hours of early education per week to all three- and four-year olds, with 99% of four-year-olds and 94% of three-year-olds taking up a place.

The Government is investing in childcare at record levels, and total Government spend on childcare will increase from £5 billion in 2015-16 to over £6 billion by 2019-20. This includes almost £4 billion for the current free entitlement for three- and four-year-olds, disadvantaged two-year-olds and the early years pupil premium for three- and four-year-olds, as well as funding for the extended entitlement for working parents of three- and four-year-olds. The funding also includes £300 million for a significant uplift to the rate paid for the two, three and four-year-old entitlements, including for children from deprived backgrounds.