Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have qualified as an early years educator in each of the last six years; and what the distribution of those people was in each region in that period.

The number of achievements of the Early Years Educator (EYE) Advanced Apprenticeship and stand-alone EYE qualifications in each region since 2013/14, when the EYE qualification was introduced, is attached.

On 3 March, the Department for Education published a response to a consultation on the requirement for early years educators to have English and mathematics GCSEs at grade C or above. Following the consultation, it has been decided to broaden the qualification requirements to include other suitable level 2 qualifications, including functional skills, with effect from 3 April 2017.

The Government response to the consultation on level 3 qualification requirements can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/level-3-early-years-educator-numeracy-and-literacy-requirements

The Early Years Workforce Strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-workforce-strategy