Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of staff in early years education settings in City of Durham constituency.

The department collects information on the childcare workforce through the survey of childcare and early years providers. This is a long-standing, nationally representative survey of 10,000 childcare and early years providers. The latest data was published on 15 December 2022, and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2022. The department does not collect data on workforce at constituency level.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England, including Durham County Council, about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing, such as workforce recruitment and retention.

Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.

The early years workforce makes a huge contribution to young children’s lives. Supporting and growing this workforce to deliver the transformative reforms announced by the Chancellor in the Spring 2023 Budget is a priority for the department. The department is developing a range of new workforce initiatives including the launch of a new, national, multi-channel broadcast recruitment campaign, planned for the beginning of 2024, to boost interest in the sector and support the recruitment of talented staff.