Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to mitigate the effect of planned increases to the national minimum wage on the ability of childcare providers to recruit staff.

We are investing £1 billion more per year in the early years to fund our commitments on the entitlements. This includes £300 million per year from 2017-18 for a significant increase to the rate paid for the two, three and four year old entitlements.

To inform the size of the funding rates increase, the government conducted a six-month long review of the cost of providing childcare and published its findings in November 2015. It looked at both the current costs of provision and the implications of future cost pressures facing the sector, including the introduction of the National Living Wage.

We have committed to developing a workforce strategy to help employers attract, retain and develop staff to deliver high quality provision.