Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to publish the evidential basis used to inform any potential future decisions to amend the staff to child ratio in nursery settings.

The government will consult in the summer on moving to the Scottish ratios for two-year-olds, from a ratio of 1:4 (one adult to four children) to 1:5 (one adult to five children). Throughout this consultation process, the department will engage fully with the sector and parents/carers on this proposed change, and this will inform any potential future decisions which will be published via a government response to the consultation.

The department’s priority continues to be to provide safe, high quality early years provision for our youngest children.