Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to make more (a) early years teachers and (b) other qualified staff available in nurseries in the London Borough of Southwark.

A well-qualified workforce in the early years is absolutely crucial. We recognise the importance of teachers in delivering good quality early years provision and the impact that high quality childcare has on children’s outcomes.

The Government is committed to growing a high quality early years workforce across the country and we are currently developing a workforce strategy to help remove the barriers to attracting, retaining and developing excellent staff in our early years settings. We plan to publish the strategy in the new year.