Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to support the recruitment of high-quality childcare practitioners.

On 3 March, the Department for Education published an early years workforce strategy, which seeks to remove the barriers to attracting, retaining and developing staff.

On the same date, the Department for Education published a response to a consultation undertaken with the sector on the requirement for early years educators to have English and mathematics GCSEs at grade C or above.

This response, and the early years workforce strategy published on the same day, set out the actions we will take as a result of the consultation.

The Government’s 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

In addition, the Early Years Workforce Strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-workforce-strategy