Education: Early Years Attainment Gap Debate
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Lord Young of Cookham
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Education: Early Years Attainment Gap
Lord Young of Cookham Excerpts(2 days, 3 hours ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness is right that those are the areas where need is very great. In our recent announcement of £15 million-worth of investment in the first 300 nurseries based in schools, we will be encouraging applications from those where there is a particular need. We will be using evidence of those applications to ensure that we are able to improve the provision in the areas that need it most.
Lord Young of Cookham (Con)
How confident is the Minister that she will be able to recruit the 35,000 additional staff that she needs to meet her target?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
As I outlined to the noble Lord, it is a very big challenge and one that we inherited from the previous Government. We have reinvigorated the recruitment campaign and are focusing on ensuring that we have those staff in place. Although it will be very difficult, we are committed to ensuring that, next September, we deliver that improved entitlement for childcare.