Spending on the apprenticeship programme is demand led, and employers can choose which apprenticeships they offer, how many and when.

Funding available for levy-paying employers depends on their levy contributions and how many of their employees live in England. For employers who do not pay the levy, we allocate funding to apprenticeship training providers directly based on our assessment of demand in the system and overall affordability of the programme. The funding allocated to providers is for non-levy starts is not directly inflation-linked.

Separately, the Institute for Apprenticeships is responsible for advising on the funding bands for individual apprenticeships, which are kept under review to make sure they continue to support high-quality delivery and represent value for money.

We are increasing spending on childcare to over £6 billion per year by 2019-20 which includes £1 billion a year to deliver 30 hours of free childcare and increase our hourly funding rates. Our new funding rates are based on our ‘Review of Childcare Costs’ which looked at both the current costs of childcare provision and the implications of future cost pressures facing the sector. The Review was described as “thorough and wide ranging” by the National Audit Office.

The Government’s total hourly funding rate for three- and four-year olds (national average to local authorities) increased from £4.56 to £4.94 in April 2017. This compares very favourably with research into the cost of childcare, published by Frontier Economics in July 2017, which shows that the mean hourly delivery cost of a three/four year old place was £3.72.

The Government has also increased Small Business Rate Relief and provided authorities with funding to support £300m of discretionary business rates relief, which could be used to support local nurseries.