In a speech today, Kier Starmer will set out Labour’s plans to expand opportunity via five “missions” including “Early years reform – to boost child development with an ambitious target of half a million more children hitting their early learning targets by 2030.” We welcome the focus on the early years, and applaud the aim for many more […]
The Department for Education (DfE) is currently consulting on proposals to amend the Early Years Foundation Stage. They propose relaxing the requirements around the minimum qualifications levels for the sector including: These proposals are intended to allow flexibility to providers as a recognition of the recruitment and retention crisis currently faced by the early years […]
DfE has issued slightly more detail about the planned uplift in the hourly rates for the current and new entitlements, following the announcements in the recent Budget. A recent ministerial response to a parliamentary question also confirmed that the expected rate for under 2s will be around £11. The DfE’s calculations are predicated on assumptions […]
The Department for Education (DfE) have published their response to the consultation on potential changes to staff:child ratios. The consultation received responses from nearly 10,000 parents, around 3,000 providers from across the sector, virtually all local authorities and many charities and sector organisations. The document acknowledges that there was overwhelming opposition to the proposal to […]
In today’s budget the Chancellor has confirmed several new measures on early education and childcare: Our analysis The decision to relax the ratios for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5 despite overwhelming opposition from the sector and parents is extremely disappointing. While most of the sector are unlikely to implement this, the pressure on settings budgets […]
Today, Early Education, the NAHT, NEU and Unison have jointly written an open letter calling on the government to address the shortfall in early years funding. The letter asks the Secretary of State for Education and the Chancellor to prioritise raising the funding for the early education entitlements: Before any expansion of the number of […]
Today, teachers from the National Education Union are striking, including many working in nursery and reception classes. In the last week, the Department for Education published a report providing further evidence of the importance and impact of high quality teaching in reception. This adds to existing evidence about the crucial role of high quality teaching […]
We welcome the news that our President, Professor Cathy Nutbrown, has been made a Dame in the year’s New Years Honours list. This is much deserved for Cathy’s tireless work advocating for the best interests of young children and championing the vital role of the early years workforce. Cathy’s landmark report into the early years […]
The government’s latest changes to the early years funding formulae bring two key changes which we pointed out in our response to the consultation would spread an already limited amount of funding unevenly across the country. Our analysis of the published 2023-24 allocations shows this to be the case and looks at where the funding […]
DfE have today announced the early years funding settlement for 2023-24, which leaves the early years sector struggling on below inflationary increases. While an additional £10m for the least well-funded maintained nursery schools (MNS) is welcome, and an additional £20m for the Early Years National Funding Formula represents a token acknowledgement of the additional wage […]
Early Education
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