Prime minister Tony Blair made the announcement last week, the day after chancellorof the exchequer Gordon Brown's Comprehensive Spending Review.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Blair said he had asked Baroness Ashton to take on the new role and she would be appointed jointly to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DfWP) 'to ensure that our early years and childcare vision delivers on both our educational and employment objectives'.
Baroness Ashton will be in charge of the new interdepartmental unit being set up within the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), and will be responsible for early years education, childcare and Sure Start in England.
She will report to a new cross-departmental ministerial group, Mr Blair said.
He added, 'I believe these new arrangements will ensure that an integrated approach to the development and delivery of our early years and childcare vision.'
Baroness Ashton said she was 'delighted' with her new role and added, 'The creation of a single unit within Government will help focus on the delivery of good-quality childcare, early years education, family support and health services. We have learned from Sure Start how important it is to bring together services for children and parents.
'I'm confident that increased funding and the new networks of children's centres will enable us to deliver better services to thousands more families.'
Baroness Ashton, as early years minister, chaired the inter-departmental childcare review that resulted in the creation of the new department. She said the review's work had 'emphasised the importance of childcare to our objectives of extending employment opportunities and tackling child poverty, as well as the significant benefits to children of good-quality childcare'.
