Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of staffing capacity in early years settings.

The early years workforce is at the heart of our mission to give every child the best start in life and deliver the Plan for Change. The department has seen strong growth in the workforce so far, with early years provision delivered by an estimated 353,700 paid staff in 2025, compared to 353,100 in 2024. We know more growth will be needed as children age into the 30 hours offer from September 2025 onwards, so we continue working closely with providers and local authorities.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. No local authority is reporting sufficiency issues.

We continue to support the sector to attract talented staff and childminders by creating conditions for improved recruitment alongside programmes to better utilise the existing workforce. Recruitment and retention are being boosted through national recruitment campaigns, financial incentives, new teacher training and apprenticeships routes.