Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve staff qualifications in childcare and early-education settings in England.

The Early Years Workforce Strategy published in March this year, sets out the actions we will take to attract, retain and develop the early years workforce.

The strategy includes a commitment to working with the early years sector and awarding organisations to develop new criteria for level 2 childcare qualifications.

The Department will also work with organisations specialising in SEND (special educational needs and disability) to develop a specification for early years staff who want to focus on SEND.

The strategy also includes a commitment to review the early years initial teacher training routes to make sure we are maximising the impact of the programme.