Letter to the next Prime Minister

The letter below sets out our key asks for the next government.

Labour commits to more nursery provision in schools

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 […]

Lib Dems commit to tripling early years pupil premium

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 […]

Early Education and Childcare Coalition manifesto calls for “rescue and reform”

Today, Friday 17 May, the Early Education and Childcare Coalition (EECC) has launched its new manifesto, with proposals to rescue and reform England’s early education and childcare sector. Early Education are one of the 30 organisations in the coalition which brings together representatives of parents and children, practitioners, providers, employers and the business sector. To […]

Government launches new early years recruitment campaign

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 […]

Could your career story help a young person forge their own path in childcare and early years?

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 teenage years. We’ve teamed up with Inspiring the Future to support you in illuminating this path for young people by sharing your career story and showing them how their early […]

Labour’s mission to focus on the early years

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 […]

Government proposals to relax EYFS qualification requirements will impact quality

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 […]

Resisting intensified accountability: is now the time for inspection reform?  

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 navigating an intense policy landscape where accountability is entangled with surveillance and performativity (Spencer Woodley, 2014; Kilderry, 2015). Ofsted, the regulatory accountability mechanism in England, has seen heightened scrutiny recently […]

DfE relaxes ratios despite overwhelming opposition

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 […]