By Dominic Penna
Nursery teachers will be offered almost 拢5,000 extra to work in the poorest areas, the Education Secretary has announced.
Bridget Phillipson confirmed the incentive scheme as part of a strategy to join up early years and family services.
Nurseries and other pre-school settings will also receive more regular Ofsted inspections under the Government鈥檚 new 鈥渂est start in life strategy鈥.
Announcing details of the strategy on Monday, the Department for Education (DfE) said that one in 10 nurseries in the UK currently had a trained early years teacher.
In response, it unveiled a new tax-free 拢4,500 payment aimed at securing 3,000 more early years teachers in nurseries in the 20 most disadvantaged communities in the country.
The department said the payment would act as an incentive 鈥渢o attract the very best talent鈥 while also seeking to give disadvantaged pupils a better chance of success.
鈥楾ackling inequalities early鈥
Ms Phillipson said: 鈥淢y driving mission is to make sure every child has the chance to succeed no matter their background 鈥 and this new strategy will help give our youngest children the very best start in life.
鈥淭he best way of reducing inequalities is by tackling them early. That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e joining up family support services through our best start family hubs, driving up quality in our early years system and strengthening support for children as they enter primary school.
鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 luxuries. They are the essentials, and that is what this government will deliver as we fulfil our Plan for Change.鈥
Ministers will hope that the changes can go some way to tackling a broader staffing crisis in nurseries that has seen thousands of employees leave the industry.
About 10,000 people in England left jobs in early years childcare between 2019 and 2023, a fall of 3 per cent.
The number of registered childcare providers has also been in steady decline, falling to 61,800 in August last year from 63,200 the year before.
All early years providers will be inspected by Ofsted within 18 months of opening from April 2026, the DfE also announced.
The schools watchdog will also inspect all providers at least once every four years. At present, inspections are only required to take place every six years.
The strategy will also introduce new funding partnerships between local nurseries and schools in an attempt to ease transitions into primary school and 鈥渂reak down barriers鈥.
Last week, Ms Phillipson called on Britons to have more children and said her childcare reforms would encourage people to do so who would have otherwise rejected the idea.
Signalling an apparent shift in government policy in an article for The Telegraph, Ms Phillipson wrote: 鈥淚 want more young people to have children, if they so choose.鈥
Her comments came despite Sir Keir Starmer previously saying it was not his place to tell people how many children they have, or to introduce a national 鈥渂irth plan鈥.
European leaders including Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, have called on their citizens to have bigger families.