Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the recruitment and retention of early years practitioners in (a) Hull West and Hessle and (b) England.

The department is working proactively with the sector and local authorities, including those in the Kingston upon Hull area, to build our understanding of the situation and how we might support the sector to attract more staff to work in early years education and childcare.

​The government is providing a package of training, qualifications, expert guidance, and targeted support for the early years sector to help address existing recruitment and retention challenges, including providing additional funding for graduate level specialist training leading to early years teacher status and an accredited level 3 early years SENCO qualification. More information on the early years education recovery programme can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-education-recovery-programme.