New edition of Birth to 5 Matters launched
The Early Years Coalition has launched the updated and expanded second edition of Birth to 5 Matters (Bto5M), non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation
We welcome today’s news from the Department for Education that it has selected 300 schools to receive capital funding for new or expanded nurseries. We look forward to hearing how the government plans to learn from this pilot cohort in rolling out further funding to meet its ambitious target of 3,000 new school-based nurseries by the end of this parliament.
Early Education’s Chief Executive, Beatrice Merrick, commented:
“This first phase of funding was intended to support sufficiency of places for September 2025 when the new entitlements for working parents with children from 9 months upwards become eligible for 30 hours entitlements. Going forward, we hope that government will shift its attention to how school-based provision can support its milestone target of supporting children’s development.
“We know what schools do best is to provide high quality early childhood education that can help close the gap and improve children’s outcomes and that is inclusive of children with SEND (although schools, like the rest of the sector are struggling to do this and need more support and funding). Schools are often best placed to operate in areas of high deprivation where the private and voluntary sector model can struggle to be viable. This is particularly true of maintained nursery schools, which were not included in the first phase. We hope they will be supported in future phases.
“Conversely, private and voluntary settings and childminders may be best placed to support children from 9 months to 2 years, and to offer full-day, all-year round provision to support parents to work. Schools have less expertise in these younger age-groups and can face structural challenges in delivering extended hours. Building strong and mutually supportive partnerships between schools and PVIs should therefore be a key aspect of future phases which are intended to support working parents.”
The Early Years Coalition has launched the updated and expanded second edition of Birth to 5 Matters (Bto5M), non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation
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The letter below sets out our key asks for the next government.
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For many of us, the path we’ve taken in our careers can often be traced back to the passions and talents of our childhood and
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by Dr Jo Albin-Clark, Edge Hill University and Dr Nathan Archer, Leeds Beckett University Inspection in the news Being involved in education in England involves
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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
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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
