Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many training places have been (a) available and (b) unfilled for early years teachers in each year since 2014; and if he will make a statement.

There is no supply model to determine the number of early years teachers required and there is not a target set for recruitment of such teachers.

We continue to make early years initial teacher training places available based on demand as evidence shows that the quality of early years provision is higher when led by specially trained graduates.

Experimental statistics on new entrants to early years initial teacher training for the academic year 2017/18 are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/initial-teacher-training-trainee-number-census-2017-to-2018.