To ask the Minister of Education for his assessment of the Independent Review of Education's recommendation that the current arrangements relating to funding, staff ratios and qualifications in public sector pre-school settings should be applied to private sector provision as soon as possible.

In 2022 my Department commissioned a scoping study to analyse the current state of the pre-school education sector and cost a range of options for standardisation of funded pre-school education provision, including in relation to funding, staff ratios and qualifications. The report was circulated to Executive colleagues and is available on the Department’s website at Final Scoping Study Report | Department of Education (education-ni.gov.uk)

The recommendations contained in that report will be reflected in the Executive Early Learning and Childcare Strategy I plan to bring to the Executive in autumn of this year. However, implementation will be reliant on Executive funding.