Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab) (Urgent
Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will
make a statement on her Department’s plans to roll out 15 hours of
funded childcare to 2-year-olds in working families from April
2024. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education
(David Johnston) The Government are rolling out the single largest
expansion in childcare in English history. By September 2025, we
will provide...Request free trial
(Houghton and Sunderland
South) (Lab)
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Education if
she will make a statement on her Department’s plans to roll out
15 hours of funded childcare to 2-year-olds in working families
from April 2024.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
The Government are rolling out the single largest expansion in
childcare in English history. By September 2025, we will provide
working parents with 30 hours of free childcare a week from when
their child is nine months old, all the way until they start
school. By 2027-28, this Government expect to spend in excess of
£8 billion every year on free hours in early education—double the
amount we are currently spending.
We are introducing that in phases. From April, eligible working
parents will be able to access the first 15 hours of free
childcare each week for their two-year-olds. In September, they
will be able to access the first 15 hours each week for
nine-month-olds. A year later in September 2025, they will be
able to access the full 30 hours for all eligible children aged
nine months upwards.
We want parents to be able to access the new offer as soon as
they can. Delivering that ambition includes increasing childcare
funding rates, with an additional £204 million in this financial
year and an additional £400 million in the coming financial year.
We are providing grants to help new childminders enter the sector
and, to make it easier for the sector, making changes to the
early years foundation stage that it has asked us to make.
We hear every day from families how significant this policy will
be for their finances. Once the roll-out is completed, eligible
families will save up to £6,500 per year. It will help parents to
return to work or increase their hours, and tens of thousands of
parents have already successfully applied for their codes, ready
to take up their places in April. Parents should visit
childcarechoices.gov.uk to see the full range of support they are
entitled to.
Regarding tax-free childcare, we will be issuing letters with
temporary codes to any parents whose tax-free childcare
reconfirmation date falls on or after 15 February and before 1
April. That will ensure that any eligible parent who needs a code
to confirm their funded childcare place with their provider will
have one, and that no parent should worry that they will lose
out.
I welcome this opportunity to correct some misleading stories
about the childcare roll-out, and to hear from the hon. Member
for Houghton and Sunderland South () about whether she
supports our childcare policies, and, if not, what her childcare
policies would be. I am sure Members on the Labour Benches would
like to know as much as we would.
Mr Speaker
In which case, it would have been good to have come forward with
a statement, rather than me granting an urgent question. So,
please bear that in mind before you make a comment.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and thank you for granting the urgent
question.
Crumbling school buildings, botched school budgets and now the
hat trick: a childcare pledge in tatters because of Conservative
bungling. It is not Ministers, but families across the country
paying the price for Tory incompetence. How did we get here?
A litany of failures: a pledge without a plan and a Department
without a grip, led by Ministers without a clue; families without
the certainty of a childcare place they were promised by the
Chancellor last March; and meanwhile the Department is facing a
further £120 million shortfall because of yet another
miscalculation. How are they going to make up that shortfall?
Families are facing a rolling wave of Conservative chaos which
wrecks all before it: for providers it is an utter fiasco, where
their income after April is still a state secret. When will
providers be told about their funding rates? How many families
does the Minister estimate will now not be able to access new
hours because of this shambles? The Prime Minister’s official
spokesman this morning said:
“We are confident that the provision and capability is there, we
are confident in the strength of the marketplace.”
But the market is telling them that their plan is simply not
deliverable. The chief executive of the Early Years Alliance said
that signing up to the new system was “financial suicide” for
providers. Mr Speaker, this is not a market, it is an almighty
mess and Ministers know it. Government sources are briefing the
papers that there will be
“parents that just don’t get their places.”
Let me explain to Ministers in words of one syllable. That is no
good. That will not work. They must do more. They need to fix it.
If providers cannot price places now, how on earth can they be
expected to offer more in September? Can Ministers guarantee to
parents now that the roll-out will be delivered on time, yes or
no?
It need not be this way. is leading Labour’s early years review to ensure
that childcare is about life chances for children, as well as
work choices for parents. Up and down this country families are
fed up with this Government, their broken promises and their
incompetence. It is time for a general election to end this Tory
shambles once and for all.
I will try to pick out the questions from the bluster.
On the £120 million, this is a specific issue that affects
September 2024 onwards, where we allocated to local authorities
22 weeks of funding because that is the period from September to
March. Some then said that they pay 26 weeks to their providers,
so we have that money in order that they can provide 26 weeks of
funding where that is what they do.
On the funding rates, we announced the funding rates for three
and four-year-olds in April last year, and for two-year-olds in
November. Given that local authorities have to pass on 95% of the
money that we give them, providers have a pretty good idea of
what they will receive. However, while the vast majority of
authorities will confirm their rates in the coming weeks, a small
number leave it until 31 March. We are encouraging them not to do
that, and to confirm their rates as early as possible in the same
way as the others.
The hon. Lady asked how many families would not be able to access
the childcare offer as a result of those two issues. The answer
is none. As she knows, we have increased funding rates
significantly. Neil Leitch, to whom she referred, is in our
stakeholder group, and we value his input. However, I think it
will be clear to people watching these exchanges that while we
get on with the biggest delivery of childcare ever, the Labour
party has no plan, no policy, and no idea how to help families
with childcare costs.
(North West Hampshire) (Con)
The expansion of childcare is extremely welcome, and I have every
confidence that the Minister and the excellent team at the
Department for Education will deliver this current expansion on
time and that the funding will reach all the families who need
it. To be fair, however, the Minister is dealing with a system
that has become remarkably complicated over the last 15 or 20
years. Would he be interested in discussing with the Chancellor
the notion of rolling up all the various funding streams that we
provide for childcare, and indeed for family support, and instead
of taking money from people in taxes, losing some of the
administration and returning it to them in the form of mandated
childcare, thus giving every family with children a generous tax
break to allow them to make choices for themselves?
My right hon. Friend has written some articles, which I have
read, proposing that very idea. We think that our present system
is the best way of achieving what we want to achieve, but I am of
course happy to continue my discussions with him.
(Bristol South) (Lab)
Good-quality childcare is a crucial economic infrastructure issue
for parents now and the education of children in the future,
which is why we need it, but the system is too complex, and we
cannot access it in my constituency. Providers are collapsing.
When will the Government think about drawing up a workforce plan
to try to stabilise the system before adding more and more
complexity for parents?
I am not sure what the hon. Lady means when she says that people
in Bristol cannot access the system, but if she sends me the
details, I shall be happy at look at them, because, I have said,
tens of thousands of parents have already accessed it. I should
also point out that while there has been a fall in the number of
providers, there has been an increase in the numbers of both
staff and places, so we are confident that we will deliver the
roll-out as planned.
(Southend West) (Con)
I welcome the Minister’s statement, and working parents across my
constituency welcome this expansion and the biggest ever
investment in childcare in England. Today, however, I received a
letter from Victoria Morris, a very experienced childminder who
has worked in Leigh-on-Sea for more than 20 years, pointing out
that someone who owns a nursery can claim the funding for
children to whom they are related, including their own children,
but that does not apply to childminders. She simply asks whether
the Minister would consider lifting that ban so that childminders
are on the same footing as other childcare providers.
The current legislation states that people cannot access
Government money for looking after their own children, although
it can happen in a larger setting. We have no plans to change
that at present, but I should be happy to have a discussion with
my hon. Friend.
(Ellesmere Port and Neston)
(Lab)
We know of the challenge that many parents face in trying to find
an appropriate nursery for their children, but it is even harder
when a child has special educational needs. According to messages
I have received, some nurseries are refusing to take such
children on. Can the Minister say without equivocation that that
is unlawful?
The hon. Gentleman has made an important point, and he is
entirely right. We have heard from great organisations such as
Dingley’s Promise that providers have not given places to
children with special educational needs, and the team and I are
looking into that to ensure that it is not the case.
(Stroud) (Con)
Parents asked for support with childcare and the Treasury and the
Government have delivered it, but the system does need to be
simplified. I have been following the analysis of the codes, and
receiving the codes, by Pregnant Then Screwed, which announced
today that a fix had been found and thanked the Department. It
would be helpful to hear a little more about that. Will my hon.
Friend meet, for instance, the New Deal for Parents group, which
is looking for long-term simplifications? Will he also tell us
how he is working through the different local authority areas to
show that there will be places available now and also in
September, because so many parents are looking forward to
that?
My hon. Friend has been campaigning on this issue since she
arrived in this place. The tax-free childcare code issue was a
specific issue caused by parents needing to reconfirm their
eligibility every three months to prove that they were still
eligible. If they did that quite late last year, they were
concerned that they might not be able to get the place they
needed in time for the 31 March deadline. As my hon. Friend says,
Pregnant Then Screwed has fixed that issue. I would be happy to
meet the groups that she mentioned. On the sufficiency of places,
we are in monthly contact with local authorities to ensure that
they have sufficient places, and only a very small number are
reporting any concerns at this point.
(North Shropshire) (LD)
A report from the Early Education and Childcare Coalition last
November found that only 17% of nursery managers said they could
offer the extended entitlement, because of the crisis in
recruitment in the sector, and 35% said they would limit the
number of places they offered unless the Government helped with
recruitment. More than half of all nursery workers have said they
are planning on leaving the sector in the next 12 months. What
will the Minister do to address the crisis in recruitment and
retention in the sector so that nurseries can provide the
extended entitlement that parents want?
We have seen a 4% increase in the number of staff in 2023,
compared with 2022. None the less, part of the reason why this is
a phased implementation and expansion of childcare is to ensure
that we have the number of staff we need, and in a couple of
weeks we will be launching a big recruitment campaign to get more
people into the sector.
(New Forest West) (Con)
Will the Minister name and shame those authorities that are being
dilatory in publishing their rates?
I reserve the right to do that, but we hope that if we ring them
up first and ask them to publish—with the threat of doing that if
they do not—they will do so.
(Sunderland Central)
(Lab)
The current system of childcare support is not working: IT
problems are causing parents to be locked out of the system;
codes are not working; there are no timescales to sort problems;
there is no response to complaints; and people are waiting weeks
for moneys to be paid to providers. If the current system is not
working, how does the Minister expect to reassure parents that
the new system, which will rely on the same codes and systems, is
going to work?
I simply do not accept what the hon. Lady says—[Interruption.] If
she wants to send me details, I will be happy to take them up
with any local authority that is not doing what it is asked to
do. On the two particular issues with the roll-out, we have moved
quickly and provided solutions for them.
(Chelmsford) (Con)
This is the biggest ever expansion of childcare and it will be
transformational for many working parents, so it is bound to be
really complicated to implement. The Minister has just said that
only a tiny number of local authorities are reporting that they
think they will not have sufficient places, so does that mean
that the vast majority of local authorities say that they will
have sufficient places? What is he doing to encourage more people
to come into the profession and act as childminders?
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right: the vast majority of
local authorities are already reporting that they will have the
number of places that they need. We are working with the small
number that have challenges and we are confident that they will
be in the right place by that point. On her question about
childminders, one of the things we are doing is introducing a
brand-new childminder grant scheme to encourage more childminders
into the great early years careers that are available.
(Vauxhall)
(Lab/Co-op)
I heard the Minister talk about the staffing. For a new parent or
carer, handing over their young child to the staff in the sector
is one of the most scary things. Those staff do fantastic work
but are often paid low wages. The Women’s Budget Group has
estimated that there will need to be at least 40,000 additional
new early years staff to cope with the increase in entitlement in
terms of recruitment and retention in the sector. Will the
Minister outline when we can expect the long-term workforce plan
for the early years sector, so that we can actually have the
staff? It is no good having this increase in entitlement if there
are no staff to look after the children.
The hon. Lady is right that we need more staff. I think she
refers to the estimate in time for September 2025, rather than
for the first part of the roll-out in April, which is part of the
reason for the current recruitment campaign. We are pleased to
have already seen a 4% increase in the number of staff.
(Stockton South) (Con)
I welcome the fact that the Government are rolling out the
biggest ever investment in childcare in England. Will my hon.
Friend outline how much the average working family will benefit
from the extended childcare entitlements?
My hon. Friend is right that it is the biggest expansion of
childcare provision in history. By the time the roll-out is
complete in September 2025, it will save the average family up to
£6,500 a year in childcare costs.
(Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)
Many of us tried to warn the Government that this would be like
Help to Buy, pushing up demand without tackling supply. Numbers
matter in this sector, and it is 313 days since the policy was
announced and just 70 days before it is due to be implemented.
There have been 30 separate questions in this place about the
staffing shortfall, and none of them has been answered. There are
two children chasing every registered place, and only two local
authorities have actually agreed the rates. It is little wonder
that parents are frustrated. Will the Minister set out, here and
now, the staffing shortfall in terms of delivering the
two-year-old offer in April? Will he tell us what it is, and will
he tell us when he expects to close it?
As I have already said, the roll-out is based on—
What are the numbers?
The hon. Lady cites the figures for September 2025, not for
April. I am confident that, in April, she will see that we have
the staff available for the roll-out.
(Rother Valley)
(Con)
I declare an interest as the father of two wonderful children,
Charlotte and Persephone, who go to nursery in this very place
and will benefit from the new proposals.
The UK has a declining birth rate—on average, 1.92 children per
woman—and we clearly need more children. Time and again, when
surveyed, women who want more children say that they are not
having more children because they cannot afford it. I thoroughly
welcome the money that has been announced, but what more is being
done to support parents who say they want more children but
cannot afford to have them? That could perhaps include looking at
the tax rate.
I hope Charlotte and Persephone enjoy their nursery provision
here, which I am sure is among the 96% of early years providers
that are good or outstanding. My hon. Friend is right that
childcare is one of the biggest financial challenges facing
families today, which is why we are pleased to save them so much
money. I am happy to continue the conversation about what else he
thinks should be done to support families.
(Putney) (Lab)
The shortfall in childcare providers is a serious issue for
constituents in Putney. Eastwood Nursery School, the last
remaining state-maintained nursery in my constituency, is under
immediate threat of closure. It provides training for childcare
providers across the constituency, as well as excellent early
years education. Does the Minister support state-maintained
nurseries? Will he meet me to talk about the future of Eastwood
Nursery School?
We certainly support state-maintained nurseries, which play a
vital role in the sector. I would be delighted to meet the hon.
Lady to discuss that particular case.
(Winchester) (Con)
I praise the Minister for being on top of his brief and for
ironing out some of the misunderstandings flying around today. Is
it not the case that, as others have said, the challenges of
rolling out this offer sit within the broader context of the
ongoing workforce challenge? Today I spoke to a provider that has
42 settings and is not able to fully staff a single one of them.
I know the Minister is doing a lot of work on this, but will he
say a little more about how he plans to meet that workforce
challenge with his recruitment drive?
I thank my hon. Friend, who has also done a lot to champion the
sector and to raise awareness of the challenge it faces. He is
right that we need to get more people into the workforce,
particularly for the September 2025 roll-out. That is what the
recruitment campaign and the changes we made to the early years
foundation stage are all about. We listened to providers on the
flexibilities that might make their lives easier and delivered
almost everything they asked for, in the hope that it will help
them with recruitment and retention.
(Blaydon) (Lab)
I recently visited the Ryton Willows Montessori nursery in my
constituency, where its manager explained her concerns about the
impact of the change on her, and about how she was going to make
the sums add up financially and provide an excellent service. We
have heard that the final figures are not available; when will
they be available? Will the Minister undertake to review the
figures to see that they meet the needs of the sector?
We set our rates by conducting a survey of 10,000 providers, in
order to understand the costs they face and set the rates
accordingly. Last November, we delayed publishing the rates a
bit, in order that we could provide more money to take account of
the Government’s near 10% increase in the national living wage.
We believe we are getting them right in relation to what people
are paying, but if the hon. Lady has particular evidence she
would like to send me, I will happily look at it.
(Blackpool South) (Ind)
Last Friday, I visited the Butterfly Lodge nursery in Blackpool
to hear the concerns of early years providers, many of whom are
at breaking point. They welcomed the uplift in funding from
April, but they were keen to emphasise that it does not even
cover the significant increase in their costs, such as for
utilities and the national living wage. What steps are the
Government taking to stabilise the sector and prevent early years
providers from leaving it altogether?
I set out in my statement the additional money that we had given
to the sector in the last financial year and this one to help it
to meet those cost pressures—that was anchored to the survey of
10,000 providers that I talked about. Again, if the hon.
Gentleman wants to send me information, data or specific case
studies, I will gladly have a look.
(Bristol East) (Lab)
I am glad the Minister said that, because I have a specific case
from my constituency that I wish to raise. It relates to the
parents of a two-year-old and a nine-month-old baby. They are
teachers in local secondary schools and the mother is planning on
returning to work after maternity leave. They have been really
struggling with this issue of the portal, when they would get the
code through and so on. I hope that what was announced will help
them, but will the Minister confirm that if it turns out that it
does not, I will be able to write to him and get an immediate
response?
Yes, and I hope that the hon. Lady will do so. We have taken an
extra-cautious approach on this. A particular group of parents
were affected and rather than just write to them, we have written
to a much broader group of parents: everybody whose
reconfirmation window goes from middle of February to the end of
March. So no parent should lose out as a result of this issue and
she should get in touch with me immediately if those parents are
encountering any problems.
(Eltham) (Lab)
The businesses involved in providing childcare need to be able to
plan ahead. The Minister may say, “Everything will be fine in
April. There may be some problems down the road, but we are
confident we can iron them out,” but that really is not going to
be get people to invest in leases from premises and all sorts of
things that those who run childcare businesses are going to need
to commit to, so will he give us a bit more detail? He says he is
confident that this is going to meet the need, but 700,000
children are going to join the scheme, according to the
Government’s own figures. Where are those childcare providers
going to get the information they need in order to be confident
that they can invest to go forward?
We are in monthly contact with local authorities and at least
monthly contact with providers about this. Some local authorities
do take a long time to publish their rates. We are looking at
that, because we have provided the information and the funding
that we need to, and we do not think it is right for providers in
the sector to be waiting right up until 31 March to get that
information. So we are looking at what we can do on that. Having
said that, some local authorities have already confirmed their
rates and the vast majority will do so in the coming weeks.
(Weaver Vale) (Lab)
The initiative is supposed to provide 700,000 additional
childcare places, yet 5% of providers withdrew from the market
last year, including in the Sandymoor part of my constituency.
How do Ministers square that circle, given the funding pressures
going forward?
We are doing all we can to help providers meet the funding
pressures. It is important for Members of the House to understand
that there is a difference between the fall in the number of
providers, which can be seen in nationally published data, and
the increase in the number of staff and places. I am confident
that parents will be able to access these hours as entitled.
(Stockton North) (Lab)
Every time the Government have made an announcement to improve
childcare, I have welcomed it. I was pleased to serve on the Bill
Committee for the Childcare Act 2016, but I questioned then
exactly how the Government were going to deliver the capacity
needed within the budget available. The Minister said that all
would be well, but he was wrong and it took years to build up
capacity, and the current offer is still not being universally
delivered. Given the poor preparation for this latest initiative,
how on earth can parents expect the Government to deliver this
time?
I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has welcomed our announcements
on childcare, although Members on the Opposition Front Bench have
not done so. We are in close contact with local authorities and
providers in order to deliver the initiative, and parents will be
able to get those first 15 hours for their two-year-olds in
April.
(Strangford) (DUP)
Does the Minister believe that part of the consideration on
affordable childcare will take into account the need for
nurseries to be able to operate alongside the cost of living
crisis? Can additional funding be found to meet that need, not
for the sake of the delivery of a promise but for the children
who desperately need the care to enable their development and for
the parents who simply cannot afford to do it alone?
The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about the increased
cost pressures that everybody has to face. That is why we gave an
additional £204 million in the last financial year and a further
£400 million in the current financial year to help meet those
pressures, based on the fact that we surveyed 10,000 providers in
order to understand exactly what they are paying for all the
things he outlines.
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