Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of levels of pay in the early years and childcare sector on settings' capacity to employ staff qualified to Level 3 or above.

The Department for Education does not set pay and conditions for early years professionals employed in private and voluntary sector organisations, which is the majority of the early years workforce.

The most recent data we have on the early years sector and pay is from the 2016 Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers SFR (statistical first release). The accompanying research report, which is more detailed than the SFR, is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/593965/SFR09_2017_Research_Report.pdf. The section on Childcare staff pay in group-based and school-based providers can be found in pages 69 to 72.

Employers are responsible for staff recruitment. We do not hold data on unfilled vacancies. The Early Years Workforce strategy published in March 2017 is intended to support the early years sector to remove barriers to attracting, retaining and developing the early years workforce.