Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to pages 25-26 of the Social Mobility Commission's report, Time for Change: an assessment of government policies on social mobility 1997-2017, published on 28 June 2017, what assessment she has made of the effect of the level of pay on the number of qualified professionals in the childcare sector.

The Department for Education does not set pay and conditions for early years professionals employed in private and voluntary sector organisations, which is the majority of the early years workforce.

The Early Years Workforce strategy published in March 2017 is intended to support the early years sector to remove barriers to attracting, retaining and developing the early years workforce.