Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Giving every child the best start in life, published on 7 July 2025, what progress has been made in awarding financial incentives to early years teachers in disadvantaged areas.

The commitment to champion early years teachers was announced on 7 July 2025 in the ‘Giving every child the best start in life’ strategy. The department wants the important role they play to be properly recognised. We want to grow the number of early years teachers, with the long-term aim of having one in every setting. To support this commitment, the new financial incentives policy will give all new and existing qualified early years teachers in eligible nurseries serving the most disadvantaged areas £4,500. We are in the early stages of developing this policy and will provide further details on eligibility and the delivery method in due course.