Childcare Practitioners are only on minimum wage. These are the people we entrust our children to on a daily basis. Many of the child practitioners I know are excellent, but how can we as a nation continue to attract the best people into this career if they are looking at only getting minimum wage.

This is below the average salary of NVQ Level 3 workers in the UK. A salary of at least £10.50 per hour would be a much fairer and proportionate amount for those that care for our future.

If we are to build a better future for this nation and world, then we have to ensure that our children have the best start in their early years. This requires a dedicated and loyal workforce in early years education.

The nursery that my own child attends is losing talented early years practitioners to other jobs for the simple reason it is not financially viable for then to stay as childcare practitioners.