Nurseries in England and Wales need to employ a higher number of early years teachers to prepare children for moving into schools, according to a claim from Save the Children, which says every nursery in the country should have such a teacher in place to help with the development of language and speech skills. 

It said that those who are attending nursery can be set back years if they are not adequately stimulated in an educational sense before they start their formal school career at primary school. The charity said that bringing on board more early years teachers was vital because they can really help when it comes to the development of young kids, as well as helping parents.

Early years teachers generally have to pass professional tests in numeracy and literacy and complete a period of initial teacher training before they start in any nursery school, and the government has said it is focussed on making sure it ramps up training for these positions to help improve recruitment. 

It also went on to say that it wants to work with early years teachers as a profession in a bid to help it improve its status across the country. 

Save The Children said failure to properly stimulate toddlers' brains during nursery years could set them back decades when it comes to learning and leave them struggling both with education and professional development throughout their life. 

It added that this is a very worrying factor when we consider that almost 130,000 children in England last year were falling behind with language abilities before they even reached school. This means that six children in every reception class struggled with their early language skills in the last year, showing how important it is for early years teachers to be brought in. 

The Department for Education responded to the report by saying that it has seen a rise in the last few years in the number of early years teachers employed. 

"Between 2008 and 2013, the proportion of full day care staff with a degree or higher increased from five per cent to 13 per cent," a spokeswoman said.