Ms Teresa Heeney:

I will make a brief point on equal start and access. If we acknowledge that access to good-quality early years services has a protective role in the lives of children, it is important that we recognise that the Government has said it anticipates a total shortfall by 2030, in only five years’ time, of approximately 14,000 early years places for children under the age of five. We really need to see a huge ramp-up of all of the schemes we are talking about if we want to deliver on the needs of children under the age of five by 2030. However, there is no point in building the places unless we have the staff.

We have plenty of people coming out of early years courses - level 5, level 6, level 7, level 8 courses - every year but we are not recruiting them to work in the sector, so they are leaving courses but we cannot convert them to work in services. That is why we are saying we have to signal to that workforce that this is a sector they should consider joining. They are absolutely voting with their feet at the moment.