During a debate with MPs last week, Ms Ford said that the extra £44m in early years funding announced at the spending review ‘will pay for a rate increase that is higher than the cost that nurseries may face from the uplift to the national living wage in April’.
However, a recent parliamentary question response from Ms Ford states that the Department for Education do not have data on the proportion of the early years workforce who are aged 23 and 24.
The increase in the national living wage, announced by the chancellor in last month's spending review, comes into effect next April, and was accompanied by an extension of the wage to all workers aged 23 and over.
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