Steve Brine is to chair an influential new group in Parliament tasked with examining the future of early years.
The MP, who represents Winchester and Chandler's Ford, had made the issue one of his priorities for the new Parliament after being re-elected in December's General Election.
He was asked by the backers of the group to take on its chair and accepted the challenge during the lockdown period.
Steve says; "I have done a lot of work on school funding - and that is ongoing - but I promised to use my experience to look at early years and this group is one important part of that. We look forward to bringing to the attention of Ministers the serious issues faced by the sector and the way it is fighting for its very existence in some cases.
"This is not a Covid thing, although that hasn't helped, there has been I would say a market failure in early years settings for many years. We need a solution and we need one urgently."
The APPG is sponsored by Cache, National Day Nurseries Association, The Early Years Alliance, The Foundation Stage Forum and Tops Day Nurseries.
Pictured; Steve reads The Gruffalo on a visit to a nursery in Winchester earlier this year.
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