My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has had many discussions with the Chancellor about a range of issues across the department. Spending plans beyond 2019-20 will be set at the next Spending Review and we cannot pre-empt these decisions. The department is committed to securing the right deal for early years education.

All future funding decisions on our early education entitlements will be taken as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.

By 2019-20 we will be spending around £6 billion on childcare support – a record amount. This includes around £1 billion extra a year to deliver 30 hours of free childcare and fund the increase in hourly rates that we introduced in April 2017. Our average funding rates are based on the department’s ‘Review of Childcare Costs’ which was described as “thorough and wide ranging” by the National Audit Office.

More than 340,000 children have benefitted from our 30 hours offer over its first year.

The childcare market is a mixed economy and different providers have different business models. Providers do not have to offer the 30 hours entitlement if they do not wish to. This year one evaluation demonstrates that, of the sample of providers offering 30 hours, the majority either had no change in their profit or surplus or actually increased their profits. The latest Ofsted data from March 2018 showed that the number of non-domestic providers has remained stable.

We have worked with early years partners to provide materials and support to help childcare providers remain sustainable and develop their businesses. In addition, earlier this year we allocated a total of £7.7 million to 147 local authorities through our Delivery Support Fund. This funding was to support authorities to work with their local providers to ensure sustainable delivery of 30 hours and included funding to provide specific business support.

We will use the findings from the year one evaluation to support future delivery of 30 hours. This month we announced a year extension to our Childcare Works contract and will continue to work with them to support local authorities and childcare providers to deliver the government entitlements, including 30 hours free childcare.

We are currently undertaking work to review delivery costs and this report is another useful addition to our evidence base.

By 2019-20, the government will be spending around £6 billion a year on childcare support, including £1 billion to deliver 30 hours of free childcare and pay the higher funding rates that we introduced in April 2017.

Our funding rates are based on evidence from our ‘Review of Childcare Costs’, which was described as “thorough and wide ranging” by the National Audit Office. Local authorities’ individual funding rates are set by the new early years national funding formula which takes account of relative children’s needs and costs of delivery. It is for providers to determine how best to organise their staffing.

We continue to monitor delivery costs and have commissioned new research to provide us with robust and detailed cost data from a representative sample of early years providers.

The government is determined to support as many families as possible with access to high-quality, affordable childcare. This is why by 2019 - 2020 we will be spending a record £6 billion on childcare support.

HM Treasury and Department for Education discuss the early years entitlements at both a ministerial and official level regularly and as necessary, and will continue to do so.

Funding was made available through the Delivery Support Fund for work that directly benefits 30 hours delivery and will create (directly or indirectly) 30 hours places for the 2018 summer term.

The bid round guidance set out that we would assess local authorities’ applications against the following three areas:

1) Evidence of local delivery needs - the extent to which a local authority a) demonstrated understanding of their local demand and how they expect this to increase by the 2018 summer term and b) demonstrated the barriers or challenges they are facing.

2) Summary of the proposal - the extent to which a local authority demonstrated how their proposed project(s) would effectively address the challenges they face, and how it would help them to secure sufficient places for the 2018 summer term.

3) Delivery plan - the extent to which a local authority demonstrated that their project(s) are well costed, and that they would have the necessary skills and resources required to successfully deliver their work.

We ran a three-stage assessment process to inform the funding decisions. This consisted of a sifting exercise, an assessment panel and a financial evaluation panel.

The revenue and capital funding allocations can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/30-hours-delivery-support-fund-grants-for-local-authorities.

Funding was made available through the Delivery Support Fund for work that directly benefits 30 hours delivery and will create (directly or indirectly) 30 hours places for the 2018 summer term.

The bid round guidance set out that we would assess local authorities’ applications against the following three areas:

1) Evidence of local delivery needs - the extent to which a local authority a) demonstrated understanding of their local demand and how they expect this to increase by the 2018 summer term and b) demonstrated the barriers or challenges they are facing.

2) Summary of the proposal - the extent to which a local authority demonstrated how their proposed project(s) would effectively address the challenges they face, and how it would help them to secure sufficient places for the 2018 summer term.

3) Delivery plan - the extent to which a local authority demonstrated that their project(s) are well costed, and that they would have the necessary skills and resources required to successfully deliver their work.

We ran a three-stage assessment process to inform the funding decisions. This consisted of a sifting exercise, an assessment panel and a financial evaluation panel.

The revenue and capital funding allocations can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/30-hours-delivery-support-fund-grants-for-local-authorities.

Funding was made available through the Delivery Support Fund for work that directly benefits 30 hours delivery and will create (directly or indirectly) 30 hours places for the 2018 summer term.

The bid round guidance set out that we would assess local authorities’ applications against the following three areas:

1) Evidence of local delivery needs - the extent to which a local authority a) demonstrated understanding of their local demand and how they expect this to increase by the 2018 summer term and b) demonstrated the barriers or challenges they are facing.

2) Summary of the proposal - the extent to which a local authority demonstrated how their proposed project(s) would effectively address the challenges they face, and how it would help them to secure sufficient places for the 2018 summer term.

3) Delivery plan - the extent to which a local authority demonstrated that their project(s) are well costed, and that they would have the necessary skills and resources required to successfully deliver their work.

We ran a three-stage assessment process to inform the funding decisions. This consisted of a sifting exercise, an assessment panel and a financial evaluation panel.

The revenue and capital funding allocations can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/30-hours-delivery-support-fund-grants-for-local-authorities.

The Disability Access Fund (DAF) is allocated and paid to local authorities as part of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). The provisional DAF allocations to each local authority for financial year 2017 to 2018 are available in the ‘DSG allocations: 2017 to 2018’ table on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2017-to-2018. The Education and Skills Funding Agency pays DSG to local authorities in 25 instalments during the financial year. The DSG payment dates for financial year 2017 to 2018 are in Annex A of the ‘DSG: conditions of grant 2017 to 2018’ GOV.UK at the link above.

The Department for Education awarded the Association of Independent Local Safeguarding Children Board Chairs a grant of £25,000 in the financial year 2016-17: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-and-executive-agency-spend-over-25000-2016-to-2017.

No funding has been provided in the financial year 2017-18.

The department publishes the number of schools of each type in the annual Statistical First Release (SFR) ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers.

The department publishes the number of staff employed in each school type in the annual SFR ‘School workforce in England’:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-workforce.

The department publishes the amount spent by local authority (LA) maintained nursery schools in the annual SFR ‘LA and school expenditure’:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-local-authority-school-finance-data#local-authority-and-school-finance.

In 2016 and 2017 the Education and Skills Funding Agency received two specific requests from schools with academy status to amend their funding agreement to enable them to employ teachers without qualified teacher status. One request was received in 2016 and the other in 2017. Both these applications were accepted.