Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many early years professionals were recruited following the introduction of the £1000 tax-free cash incentive.

The early years workforce is at the heart of the government’s mission to ensure every child has the best start in life. Early education and childcare is delivered by a mixed market of private, voluntary and independent provision who recruit and employ their staff depending upon their business and local need. We are supporting the sector to attract talented staff and childminders to join the workforce by creating conditions for improved recruitment and new routes into the workforce.

Financial incentives are an important part of this plan, and the government has been running two schemes testing incentives in 26 local authorities. New starters and returners needed to meet certain eligibility criteria and to have started in an eligible provider in one of these 26 local authorities to be eligible to receive a £1000 payment.

The financial incentives pilot ran from April 2024 to March 2025 in 20 local authorities and tested whether the offer of an incentive payment would increase recruitment.

The financial incentives live test ran from November 2024 to March 2025 in an additional 6 local authorities. This tested the use of a new online portal as a possible delivery mechanism.

Delivery on both schemes ended in March 2025. The pilot is currently being evaluated and we will set out the results in due course.