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Written question asked by Shockat Adam (Independent (affiliation)) on Thursday, 19 June 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 June 2025. It was answered by Stephen Morgan (Labour) on Thursday, 26 June 2025 on behalf of the Department for Education.


Nurseries: Fees and Charges

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many free nursery hours were funded in each year since 2018; and what the total cost to the public was in each of those years.

Answer

Funding for the early years entitlements is based on part-time equivalent (PTE) hours. We define 1 PTE as 15 hours across 38 weeks a year (570 funded hours per annum).

Early years entitlements funding is allocated to local authorities through the early years block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG). DSG allocations are published annually on GOV.UK. The figures requested have been provided in the attached table.

Early years entitlements funding is demand led, so allocations are updated to reflect actual take-up throughout the year. Final allocations for a financial year are available in the July following the financial year ending in March.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
61284
Session
2024-26
Attachment
DSG_allocations
Subjects
Fees and charges Nurseries
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk