To ask the Minister of Education to detail any work she has undertaken to explore the adoption of a 30 hours free childcare scheme for three and four year olds, similar to that in England.

The New Decade, New Approach agreement, published in 2020, included a commitment to publish a Childcare Strategy and identify resources to deliver extended, affordable and high quality provision of early education and care initiatives for families with children aged 3-4.

Work to develop an Executive Childcare Strategy is underway and this will identify costed options for additional childcare support. While consideration will be given to provision available in other jurisdictions, proposals will take account of the specific Northern Ireland context.

As part of any extended provision, it would be my aim to standardise the pre-school education session length, an action that was included in the recently published ‘Fair Start’ report, which stated that provision should be standardised to 4.5 hours per day including access to a free school meal for eligible pupils. A detailed scoping study will be required to accurately assess the costs of this and the implementation timeline.

Stakeholder engagement with MLAs, parents and providers on the Childcare Strategy as a whole, has already taken place through a Strategic Insight Programme in October to December 2021. Further engagement with key stakeholders will continue over the coming months. It is also envisaged that an independent Review of Childcare Services in NI will be commissioned to inform the development of the Strategy.

Ultimately, decisions on the coverage and content of the Childcare Strategy, including the number of hours provided will require Executive agreement and a commitment to provide the associated funding.