Oral Answers to Questions

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Monday 6th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips (Birmingham, Yardley) (Lab)]

T5. In my constituency, 85% of children who attend an independent nursery do not have access to a qualified early years teacher. The proportion of our children in that situation is one of the highest in England, and it means that they are 10% less likely to be at the expected standards of early development by the age of five. The Minister has said that she wants to increase social mobility, so what effort is she making to do that in Birmingham, Yardley?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Caroline Dinenage)]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to point out that our early years workforce is one of our greatest assets. We will shortly be releasing a workforce strategy, which will outline how we want to improve what already exists. We need to help employers to attract, to retain and to develop their staff to deliver the very highest quality of early years provision.

[Mr Speaker]

Short questions and short answers, please.