Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons can be learned from the recruitment of teachers and social workers for the recruitment of staff to early years provision.

The challenges for recruitment and retention, and the appropriate response to these, will differ between sectors. The department has worked with the sector to develop an early years workforce strategy, published in March 2017 and attached. This set out how government will support employers to attract, retain and develop high quality early years staff.

Since then we have worked with sector stakeholders to develop criteria for new more robust level 2 qualifications, awarded a grant to take forward activity to promote gender diversity in the early years workforce, and created a new career progression document to support careers advice, recruitment and staff development. The early years careers progression map is attached.

We are also supporting employer trailblazer groups to develop new apprenticeship standards for the early years workforce and investing £20m in in-service professional development and training for early years practitioners in pre-reception settings in disadvantaged areas.