Commentary on provisions of Act Section 3: Sections 1 and 2: consequential amendments
Section 3 makes amendments to the Childcare Act 2006 and to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 which are consequential on the duty of the Secretary of State to secure that 30 hours of free childcare is made available free of charge for working parents ("the extended entitlement").
	Subsection (1) amends section 99(1) of the Childcare Act 2006 ("the 2006 Act") to enable the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring childcare providers who deliver the extended entitlement to supply basic information about children receiving free childcare to the Secretary of State, to a local authority or to the childminder agency with which they are registered.
	The information that all registered early years providers and school‐based early years providers who are exempt from registration by section 34(2) of the 2006 Act can currently be required to provide, on request, is set out in the Schedule to the Childcare (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/1554). It is intended that early years providers delivering the extended entitlement will be required to provide the same types of information to the Secretary of State, a local authority or the childminder agency with which they are registered (as the case may be). This will ensure that information about take‐up of the extended entitlement can be monitored and that funding for the entitlement is properly allocated to local authorities and in turn providers. To protect the children concerned, section 99(7) of the 2006 Act prohibits the publication of the information collected in any form which includes the name of the child to whom it relates.
	Part II of the School Standards and Framework Act ("the 1998 Act") sets the legal framework for the provision of financial assistance, by local authorities, to maintained schools and private, voluntary and independent childcare providers. The consequential amendments in section 3(2) extend that framework to the provision of financial assistance to settings delivering the new entitlement to 30 hours' childcare for working parents. Subsection (2)(a) inserts a new subsection (4C) into section 45A of the 1998 Act so as to provide that any duty imposed on a local authority in regulations made under section 2 of this Act ("extended entitlement regulations"), is to be treated as an education function for the purposes of determining specified budgets of a local authority.
	Subsection (2)(b) amends subsection (3)(a) of section 47ZA of the 1998 Act (free of charge early years provision outside a maintained school: budgetary framework). Section 47ZA applies where a local authority proposes to allocate money to a childcare provider (other than a maintained school) out of its individual schools budget. It provides that the amount of money to be allocated is to be determined in accordance with regulations. The amendment to subsection (3)(a) makes clear that the amount of financial assistance allocated to childcare providers for the purpose of discharging any duty imposed on the local authority in extended entitlement regulations will also be governed by regulations made under section 47ZA of the 1998 Act. This mirrors the position in respect of money allocated to childcare providers by local authorities for the purposes of discharging their duty under section 7 of the Childcare Act 2006 (the existing early entitlement).