Childcare: Fees and Charges
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the difficulties faced by parents in accessing free childcare places for children under 9 months old.
Answered by Stephen Morgan
Ensuring every child has the best start for life is a central priority for this government, including putting in place early family support services to help families to thrive in children’s first crucial months of life.
Children under 9 months are not eligible for government-funded childcare hours. Since September 2024, eligible working parents of children aged from nine months can access 15 hours of government-funded early education and childcare a week, over 38 weeks a year. This is available the term after the child turns nine months and the child's parent has a positive determination of eligibility from HMRC. So far over 200,000 parents have secured a place, and the department expects this to continue to rise in the coming weeks.
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