We welcome today’s “Plan for Change” government targets which bring a renewed emphasis on improving child development outcomes in the early years. While still committed to delivering the roll-out of the entitlements for children of working parents, the new target announced today represents an important shift of emphasis away from the number of places delivered […]
The Department for Education (DfE) has today launched a “test and learn” pilot for its planned expansion of school-based nursery provision. Under the scheme, primary schools can apply for up to £150,000 of £15 million capital funding, provided they make the case for local need and get sign off from their local authority. The following […]
Ofsted has today published its response to the “Big Listen” consultation. For the early years, it undertakes to: On the differences between early years and schools inspection, they noted “Frustration from professionals who felt inspectors on primary school inspections do not have the early years expertise needed to inspect Nursery or Reception phases.” They have […]
We welcome the Department for Education’s announcement that the government are moving ahead with their manifesto commitment to scrap single-word Ofsted judgements for schools, effective immediately, and with a new report card being introduced from September 2025 for all schools, including maintained nursery schools. The announcement confirms that a parallel change will apply to settings on […]
On 10 June, Labour announced their plans for “over three thousand new nursery classes across England to open up access to childcare hours for families”, with “spare classrooms” in schools to be used either for nursery provision delivered by schools, or by PVIs. According to the Guardian, this will include funding of £140m to refurbish […]
The Conservative Manifesto has promised to extend Family Hubs to all local authorities. This would both extend funding for the 75 local authorities where they currently operate, and introduce new funding for those authorities currently without it. This provides some recognition of the need to support families with young children, but with funding levels for […]
The Lib Dems have published their manifesto, including commitments to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law and to tackle child poverty. On early education and childcare specifically, they aim to “close the attainment gap by giving disadvantaged children aged three and four an extra five free hours a […]
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 entitlements in England is “ambitious” and that “challenges and uncertainties remain around sector sustainability and staffing”. Although the initial stage of the roll-out in April 2024 appears to be on […]
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: The “Do Something Big” recruitment campaign is to encourage people to start a career working with small children – one part of this government’s ongoing sector support to ensure providers […]
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 […]
Early Education
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