The money is expected to be concentrated on the private and voluntary sector, Sue Owen, director of the Early Childhood Unit at the National Children's Bureau, told last week's National Day Nurseries Association workforce conference.
Also due is a pamphlet on the role of the 'early years professional', the term the sector appears to prefer for the leaders of daycare settings, rather than 'pedagogue' or 'new teacher'.
This will be followed by a series of events to raise awareness and a prospectus in June 2006.
Estelle Morris, chair of the Children's Workforce Development Council, told the conference that the early years 'needs to be a sector that will no longer tolerate a low level of qualifications and pay'. But higher pay might have to wait until workforce reform had been effected, she warned.
An integrated framework of children's workforce qualifications is now seen as more likely than the proposed single framework, she revealed.