The children’s minister Claire Coutinho has given more details on the funding providers can expect to receive, which for under-twos is set to rise to around £11 an hour when the 30-hour offer to all under-fives is fully rolled out.
The minister's comments follow the major childcare reforms announced by the Chancellor in the Budget that will see the Government phase in more entitlements to ‘free’ childcare for working parents, starting with two-year-olds from next April.
The Budget report said the Government would ‘substantially uplift the hourly funding rate paid to providers to deliver the existing free hours offer in England’ to the tune of £204m in 2023-24, increasing to £288m in 2024-25.
However, until now there had been little detail on the funding rates that providers could expect to receive for increasing the entitlements for younger children.
