Written question WQ93612

We have already set out our plans for childcare in Wales.

The Welsh Government provides up to 30 hours of Early Education and funded childcare for 3 and 4 year olds under the Childcare Offer for Wales. From September 2022, the Welsh Government expanded this offer to include parents in education and training, supporting the commitment made in our Programme for Government. In the first year, this expansion saw 675 additional families supported through the Offer.

We are making excellent progress in extending the eligibility of Flying Start childcare by rolling out high-quality childcare to two-year-olds across Wales through our Flying Start programme. This is a phased roll-out, starting with our areas of greatest deprivation and takes account of the capacity within the childcare sector across Wales.

During 2023-24 and 2024-25 we are investing £46m in expanding Flying Start childcare to support long-term, positive impacts on the lives of those children and families across Wales facing the greatest challenges. We expect to support more than 9,500 additional two-year-olds across Wales to access quality Flying Start childcare during phase 2 (2023-24 and 2024-25) and we are well on track to deliver that.

Whilst our Flying Start programme is geographically targeted, the Outreach element of the programme provides a degree of flexibility and enables services to be delivered to individual children and families living with assessed needs outside of recognised Flying Start areas.

Focusing resources on our most disadvantaged communities, in the first instance, ensures that support reaches families in greatest need at the earliest opportunity. Our ambition remains for Flying Start childcare services to be available for all two-year-olds in Wales. We are working with the sector to gradually build capacity to ensure that any increase to provision is sustainable.