Liz Truss has appointed North West Hampshire MP, Kit Malthouse as education secretary.

Malthouse is the fourth person to hold the role in just over two months. He takes the place of James Cleverly who is now foreign secretary.

Kit Malthouse has been appointed education secretary by new prime minister Liz Truss, becoming the fourth person to hold the role in just over two months.

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

“We welcome Kit Malthouse’s appointment as education secretary and look forward to working closely with him in his new role.  

“There’s no doubt he takes on the role at an extremely challenging time for the early years sector as we continue to battle through an early years funding crisis, severe recruitment and retention challenges and the impact of soaring costs. Now more than ever, it is vital that the new education secretary works with the sector to ensure that the sector can thrive, and not just survive: this means a focus on investing in the early years, not deregulating it.  

“The early years is a vital part of the education sector and should be treated as such. We hope that Mr Malthouse will lead the way in valuing the sector and putting forward a long-term plan that is underpinned by adequate long-term funding, focuses on the needs of the child and recognises the early years workforce as the high-quality and hardworking educators they are.”    

Purnima Tanuku OBE, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said: “We welcome the new Secretary of State for Education, Kit Malthouse, and look forward to working with him. As the fifth education secretary in the past year, he has an overflowing in-tray. We now hope to see some continuity and stability in this department.

“His priority must be to invest sufficiently in the early years sector and its workforce, because they make all the difference to children’s education and ultimately, life chances. We will share our First Five Years Count campaign with him which focuses on raising awareness of this critical window of opportunity and encouraging more talent into the profession.

“All children deserve to have the best start in life. Evidence shows that high quality early education reduces the attainment gap and saves further investment in children’s later school life.

“But the early years sector is facing huge challenges with rising costs. Any package of support for businesses must include childcare providers in both the private and voluntary sectors. Nurseries need to be made exempt from paying business rates and VAT, which would put them on a level playing field with local authority settings and schools. In order to remain sustainable and avoid more hikes in parental fees, Mr Malthouse should ensure government funding rates for two, three and four-year-olds are given a meaningful boost, then must keep pace with inflation.

“In her first speech as Prime Minister, Liz Truss referred to the need to help families. One vital way of doing this is to make childcare and early education more affordable by bringing the government contribution into line with other OECD countries. This will enable more parents to work or increase their hours and will improve children’s outcomes especially literacy and numeracy, as outlined in her six point education plan during the leadership race.”