Rising to the challenge: providing a strong start

I have been inspired by the passion of the people I have met on my visits to nurseries and, as a new father myself, I am reassured by the quality and variety of the services you are offering to families. Our young people are starting out in good hands.

Last year heralded very significant improvements in the early years sector. In summer, we saw the extension of our two-year-old offer with 40 per cent of two-year-olds now eligible to access 15 hours of free childcare each week. I would like to thank you for stepping up to the challenge of meeting this demand. We also saw the launch of childminder agencies to give childminders a new way to offer their services and find holiday cover and training.

We know the number of well-qualified people working in early years is on the increase. For the first time last year, Teach First expanded into the early years and we launched a £2m programme to support early years apprentices with good GCSEs. I am excited, and I hope you are too, about the new lifeblood this will bring to the sector.

We also learned a lot last year about the benefits of early education. The Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education study, which started back in 1997, revealed that children who go to pre-school are projected to earn £27,000 more during their career than those who don't and they are also more likely to get significantly better GCSE results.

We have always known the early years count, and now we have more proof that before a child has even worn their school uniform for the first time their life chances are already being decided.

There is more good news for 2015. Last year we saw the launch of the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP), which is designed to narrow the attainment gap between young children from low income families and their peers, setting them on a path to a more successful future. Trials start this month and funding will be available to all eligible schools, nurseries and childminders from April. I hope you will use this money imaginatively to make sure all our young people are given the best possible start in life.

The biggest change this year, however, will be the introduction of tax-free childcare, which will enable parents to have 20 per cent of their childcare costs paid and will be worth £1,200. All parents will benefit from this, rather than the limited number who currently save money through existing schemes. This presents a fantastic chance for the sector to innovate to meet the potential new demand tax-free childcare will bring.

The tax-free childcare scheme will see an extra £750m going to parents to spend on childcare and the EYPP will give providers £300 for each eligible child.

This is a significant amount of extra money going into the sector and I would like to see this money put to good use.

I spoke last year about the importance of innovation in the sector and I am reiterating it again now. As a profession, we need to think beyond the silos in which we tend to operate. Nurseries, childminders, schools and other providers must think about what they can do collectively and creatively to deliver what works for families. Many of you are already breaking new ground in doing this but there is so much opportunity to do more, providing wraparound and out-of-hours care so that childcare meets the needs of working families.

So there is the challenge. I hope 2015 brings you every success. Happy New Year.