Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in England attending funded childcare and early-education settings do not have contact with a qualified graduate professional.

Early years workforce data can be found in the annual Early Years Census published by the Department for Education. The workforce data collected in the census relates only to private, voluntary and independent (PVI) settings and childminders. Data on the number of children in PVI settings with a qualified graduate professional can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2016 (See Table 13).

Children in receipt of a funded place at a maintained nursery or state-funded primary school will have contact with a qualified graduate, due to the requirements in these settings for at least one member of staff to be a school teacher.