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The Early Years Alliance has issued a comment in response to the , published by the Department for Education today, which reveals that between 2018 and 2022, the number of early years providers in England fell by 10% (a loss of 6,600 providers).

Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:

"It is frankly unbelievable that the government is still insisting all is fine in the early years sector in the face of report after report showing the number of settings plummeting.

"Ministers continue to trot out the same old arguments: that they are investing record amounts in the sector and that the number of places across the country has remained broadly stable. But more money isn't the same as enough money, especially in times of record inflation, and the fact that the number of places has remained roughly the same nationally will be of little comfort to parents finding it impossible to access childcare and early education provision in their local area.

"The current system isn't working for anyone – not for families, not for children and certainly not for providers. The early years sector in this country is in crisis – and the longer the government pretends otherwise, the worse the situation is going to become."