Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Education Policy Institute The early years workforce in England, published on 17 January; and what steps they intend to take in response to that report in particular the need to ensure increased (1) skills, (2) diversity, and (3) pay levels in the early education workforce.

We have noted the findings of the report published by the Education Policy Institute. We are already working with the sector on a number of the issues highlighted in their report. In March 2017, we published the attached early years workforce strategy, the government's plans to support employers to attract, retain and develop early years staff to deliver high quality provision: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-workforce-strategy. As a result of the strategy, we have worked with sector stakeholders to develop criteria for new more robust level 2 qualifications, considered how the gender diversity of the workforce can be improved, as well as developing new career pathways information to support careers advice, recruitment and staff development: https://www.cache.org.uk/media/1417/dfe-career-pathway-map-v17.pdf. The career pathways map is attached.

We are supporting employer trailblazer groups to develop new apprenticeship standards for the early years workforce and have announced a £20 million investment in professional development and training for early years practitioners in pre-reception settings in disadvantaged areas.

Employers in the early years sector are responsible for setting the pay and conditions for their employees, within the statutory requirements set by government (for example, national minimum wage).