Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of recruitment and retention in early years education; and if she will make a statement.

As a Government we want to continue to attract and retain good quality staff to deliver good quality early years provision, and are developing a workforce strategy to help employers to do this.

The strategy has been informed by engagement with stakeholders and consideration of data and evidence on the early years workforce. We therefore do not intend to conduct any further review of progression and professional development.

The strategy will focus on removing the barriers that employers face in attracting, retaining and developing staff, so that new and existing staff can achieve their potential and forge a successful career in early years. The workforce strategy will set out in more detail the policies the department proposes to implement to address these barriers. This will include areas such as career progression and professional development.