Plan to improve early years education

The government has launched a new strategy to improve early education and family services so all children have the best chance to succeed, and parents have better support.

With £1.5 billion behind the plan, the strategy aims to improve family services, make it easier and cheaper for families to access early education and care, and improve the quality of education and care that children receive in early years settings, childminders, and reception classes.

Having a trained early years teacher can lead to better long-term life chances for children, with research showing settings with graduate staff score more highly on all quality measures. However, only 1 in 10 nurseries have an early years teacher now.

To tackle this, the government will fund tax-free payment of £4,500 to attract the very best talent and keep 3,000 more early years teachers in nurseries serving the 20 most disadvantaged communities in the country.

From next April Ofsted will inspect all new early years providers within 18 months of opening and move towards inspecting all providers at least once every four years, compared to the current 6 year cycle.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “My driving mission is to make sure every child has the chance to succeed no matter their background – and this new strategy will help give our youngest children the very best start in life.”

“The best way of reducing inequalities is by tackling them early: that’s why we’re joining up family support services through our Best Start Family Hubs, driving up quality in our early years system and strengthening support for children as they enter primary school.”

The strategy commits to designing and delivering a simpler system to make it easier for families to access early education and childcare, looking widely at the current support provided by different parts of government and taking account of the ongoing review of parental leave and pay.

 Sarah Ronan, Director, Early Education and Childcare Coalition said: “Change won’t happen overnight but it starts today with a shared mission to give every child the best start in life.”