National Audit Office finds roll-out of funded early education & childcare will be “challenging”
A report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) today finds that the timetable for the roll-out of the new funded early education and childcare
The Department for Education has today published its response to the EYFS consultation conducted in the summer. The changes will be implemented from January 2024 and copies of the revised Statutory Framework documents will be published in the coming weeks.
Ministers have listened to feedback on two key proposals and will not go ahead with changing the proportion of Level 2 staff required within ratios or change the qualifications and ratios outside so-called “peak hours”. We welcome that decision.
Many will be disappointed that DfE have decided to drop the requirement for Level 3 Early Years Educators to have a level 2 maths qualification. While we recognise that the GCSE maths qualification may not be fit for purpose, and many able practitioners struggle to complete it, the message sent by this change must not be that early years practitioners do not need to be confident and confident about maths. Quite the contrary – more is needed to support practitioners in understanding and supporting early years mathematical development and learning .
We are deeply concerned by the decision to remove the requirement for settings to take reasonable steps to support children with English as an additional language. Government will amend the wording from “must” to “may” in the paragraph which currently states: “For children whose home language is not English, providers must take reasonable steps to provide opportunities for children to develop and use their home language in play and learning, supporting their language development at home.” This change is in conflict with the EYFS commitments to inclusion and diversity and meeting the needs of every child. A setting which is not prepared to take reasonable steps to support children with EAL would almost by definition be acting unreasonably.
Other changes will include:
Two of the proposals will be implemented at a later, unspecified date, namely developing an experience-based route to count within ratios at Level 3 and clarification of how different Level 6 qualifications count in the ratios.
Additional announcements today included
A report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) today finds that the timetable for the roll-out of the new funded early education and childcare
A new campaign to boost recruitment to the early years sector in England is being launched today by the government. The government press release says:
DfE have issued an update to address the issue of parents wishing to claim their codes for the new entitlements who cannot do so because
UK early years curricula England The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework applies in England for early years provision for children from birth to 5.
The Department for Education has today published the two versions of the EYFS Statutory Framework which will apply from 4 January 2024: These incorporate the
by Katherine Gulliver Introduction Early Education was recently asked to review the special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) provision in the early years within one
Clare Devlin, Early Education Associate What aspects of physical development should we focus on within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and other early years
DfE has today launched a consultation on the new funding rates which will apply for 2-year-olds and under 2s when the new entitlements are introduced
The Department for Education has today announced that the extra £204m for early years announced in the budget will be allocated to local authorities as
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The open letter below was sent to Ofsted in November 2023. Download Ofsted’s response We the undersigned are writing to you about the recently published
The tenth early years minister in ten years, Kelly Tolhurst, is now in post. It’s good news that early years is part of a Minister
Comparing figures from January 2022 and January 2020, progress is being made towards previous levels of take up of funded early education. Latest figures from
Early Education welcomes the news that the new National Plan for Music Education has been extended to cover the early years. We are glad to
The Times Education Commission has today published a report which calls for “A significant boost to early years funding targeted at the most vulnerable and
Cathy Nutbrown, President of Early Education The twelve sessions of the May Annual National Conference 2022 left me reflecting on a strong thread which I
Ofsted has today launched a new five-year strategy. Elements of this which affect the early years include commitments to “simplify the regulatory regime for childminders”
We welcome the government’s new Sustainability and climate change strategy for education and children’s services, and that early years is reflected through a range of
A survey of maintained nursery schools carried out by Early Education in June 2021 has found increasing demand from children with SEND in the current
The DfE have issued documents to support schools and settings to understand how to report to the Early Years Census in the context of the
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