To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what progress he has made in establishing an early years learning curriculum. [81989]
We have asked the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to review the existing Desirable Outcomes for Children's Learning on Entering Compulsory Education. The QCA published a consultation paper in February and the consultation closes on 30 April.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer of 23 March 1999, Official Report, columns 200–01, when he expects to be able to publish the detailed breakdown of the expected expenditure on early years education in 1998–99. [82014]
[holding answer 26 April 1999]: Expenditure plans—including estimated outturn expenditure for 1998–99—were published in the Departmental Report of the department for Education and Employment and Office for Standards in Education (Cm 4202) in March 1999. These included the following estimates of outturn expenditure on early years education and childcare in 1998–99:
| £ million | |
| National Childcare Strategy | 27 |
| Funding from the windfall tax for the National Childcare Strategy | 25 |
| Under fives | 137 |
| Local authority expenditure on under fives education | 1,692 |
| Sure Start | 3 |