Liz Truss to become next Prime Minister
By Rachel Lawler
Liz Truss will become the UK's next Prime Minister, after beating rival Rishi Sunak to become the new leader of the Conservative party.
Truss has been an MP since 2010 and previously held various cabinet roles including, most recently, minister for women and equalities and secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs.
From 2012-14, Truss served as parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Education, with responsibility for the early years. Here, she oversaw plans to increase the maximum number of children each adult could be responsible for, which were later blocked by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Alliance, said: 鈥淭here is no doubt that Ms Truss takes on this role at a critical time for the early years. Rising energy bills, an acute recruitment and retention crisis and the lasting impact of the pandemic 鈥 all against a backdrop of years of government underfunding 鈥 have left our sector in crisis.
鈥淚f we are to have any chance of avoiding an early years catastrophe, it is vital that the new Prime Minister puts forward an ambitious plan for the early years: one that commits to adequate long-term funding, focuses on the needs of the child and recognises the early years workforce as the high-quality and hard-working educators they are.
鈥淎nd while we know that during her time as early years minister, Ms Truss advocated for the relaxation of ratios, we hope against hope that the time that has passed since has given her a greater understanding of value of quality early education, and that the best way to solve the challenges facing the sector is not to deregulate it, but rather, to invest in it.
鈥淔or so many years now, the early years sector been undervalued, underfunded and underappreciated. Now is a real opportunity to ensure that the sector rises up the government鈥檚 priority list rather than continuing to fall further down it. We hope that the new Prime Minister takes it.鈥