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 […]
Ofsted’s latest annual review highlights the impact of recruitment and retention challenges and finds a link between inspection outcomes and the proportion of graduates in a setting. It recognises the work which settings are doing to address the impact of the pandemic on young children. It found that 96% of providers on the early years […]
With heightened concern about the possible spread of Strep A and scarlet fever, here are some useful links to further information: Back to school advice issued amid high levels of flu, COVID-19 and scarlet fever, UKHSA (2 January 2023) Group A Strep – What you need to know – from the UK Health Security Agency […]
The Department for Education have just published the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) data for 2021/22. This is the first set of published data since the EYFS reforms of 2021. No EYFSP data was published in 2019 and 2020 due to the assessments being made non-statutory during the pandemic. So what does the data […]
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