The coalition government published its response to a consultation on the early years foundation stage. It said that it had made 'substantive changes' to the goals relating to mathematics and literacy, in response to feedback from the sector.
Source: Reforming the Early Years Foundation Stage (the EYFS): Government Response to Consultation, Department for Education
Links: Response to consultation | Hansard | DE press release | Nursery World report
Date: 2011-Dec
The government began consultation on proposals to give up to 140,000 disadvantaged children aged 2 an entitlement to 15 hours per week of free early education, from 2013.
Source: Supporting Families in the Foundation Years: Proposed Changes to the Entitlement to Free Early Education and Childcare Sufficiency, Department for Education
Links: Consultation document | DE press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Nursery World report
Date: 2011-Nov
A new book presented new research related to childcare policies and children's everyday lives in early education and care institutions in Europe. It highlighted the close connexion between (on the one hand) labour market and work-life balance issues and (on the other) development of particular care arrangements for small children.
Source: Anne-Trine Kjorholt and Jens Qvortrup (eds.), The Modern Child and the Flexible Labour Market: Early childhood education and care, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Nov
A study examined the emergence of inequality during the early years, based upon a comparative analysis of children at the age of about 5 years in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Significant inequalities in child capacities emerged even in these early years in all four countries: but the disparities were notably greater in the USA and UK.
Source: Bruce Bradbury, Miles Corak, Jane Waldfogel, and Elizabeth Washbrook, Inequality During the Early Years: Child outcomes and readiness to learn in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and United States, Discussion Paper 6120, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Nov
A paper examined the claims made for the value of pre-school education and care, using cross-national time series data for a large number of developed (OECD) countries. The analysis confirmed the association between participation levels in pre-school education/care and female employment rates. However, the cross-national analysis did not support the argument that raising aggregate levels of participation necessarily reduced social gaps in attainment at 15 years of age.
Source: Andy Green and Tarek Mostafa, Pre-School Education and Care: A Win-Win Policy?, LLAKES Research Paper 32, Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Nov
A report examined education and care divisions for children under 5 in Scotland, and set out recommendations for promoting greater integration. Responsibility for an integrated, universal system of early childhood education and childcare – from birth to the age at which children started school – should rest with one government minister.
Source: Early Childhood Education and Care: Developing a fully integrated early years system, Special Report 2, Children in Scotland
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Oct
A study examined the competency requirements of staff in early childhood education and care in Europe. High-quality education and care services for young children depended on the right mix of knowledge, practice, and values applied by individual staff – but also by institutions and the education system.
Source: Mathias Urban, Arianna Lazzari, Michel Vandenbroeck, Jan Peeters, and Katrien van Laere, Competence Requirements of Staff in Early Childhood Education and Care, European Commission
Links: Report | European Commission press release
Date: 2011-Oct
An article examined the influence of 'family caring' – parents nurturing habits during pregnancy and infancy – on children's reading and mathematics test scores.
Source: Robert Michael, ' Family caring and children's reading and math skills', Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, Volume 2 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Oct
The coalition government published a statement of its policy towards early years education and support. It said its aim was to put in place a coherent framework of services for families that focused on promoting children's development and helped with all aspects of family life. Proposed measures included:
• Offering children aged 2 from disadvantaged backgrounds a free entitlement to 15 hours of early education by 2013.
• Slimming down the framework for early years settings (the early years foundation stage), with a stronger focus on the areas that were most essential for children's learning and development, and on sharing information with parents.
• Recruiting 4,200 more health visitors over the following 4 years, so that all families could benefit from regular support from a health visitor and receive the healthy child programme.
• Doubling the number of teenage mothers and their children who could benefit from the family nurse partnership.
• Introducing a new system of flexible parental leave from 2015 to help parents balance their work and family commitments.
• Retaining a network of Sure Start children's centres, open to all families – but focused on 'those in greatest need'.
The government also published a separate report setting out its vision for the system that would implement these policies.
Source: Families in the Foundation Years, Department for Education/Department of Health | Supporting Families in the Foundation Years, Department for Education/Department of Health
Links: Statement | Implementation report | Hansard | DE press release | NDNA press release | Nursery World report
Date: 2011-Jul
The government began consultation on proposals (in response to the Tickell Review) for a new, 'slimmed down' early years curriculum for children aged 0-5. The number of early learning goals would be reduced from 69 to 17. There would be a focus on the prime areas of learning critical to making sure that children developed healthily and happily. Assessment at age 5 would remain.
Source: Consultation on a Revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), Department for Education
Links: Consultation document | Hansard | DE press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Daycare Trust press release | NASUWT press release | NDNA press release | 4Children press release | Voice press release
Notes: Tickell report (March 2011)
Date: 2011-Jul
A report evaluated the implementation of a programme that provided free early education to disadvantaged children aged 2 in England.
Source: Jennifer Gibb, Helena Jelicic and Ivana La Valle, Sally Gowland, Rachel Kinsella, Patricia Jessiman, and Rachel Ormston, Rolling out Free Early Education for Disadvantaged Two Year Olds: An implementation study for local authorities and providers, Research Report RR131, Department for Education
Date: 2011-Jun
A report called for greater partnership between the voluntary sector and government to help deliver early years services. The coalition government's aim of putting many of its services in the hands of community groups and voluntary organizations could fail to make headway unless central and local government changed the way they operated, and created a level playing field to allow charities to compete fairly with the public sector in the tendering process for the commission of services.
Source: One Million Reasons for Reform: Unleashing the potential of the voluntary sector in early years services, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
Links: Report | ACEVO press release
Date: 2011-Jun
A paper examined alternative investment policies and their consequences for the evolution of human capital in Europe. Optimal investment strategies crucially depended on the weight that a society put on equality. If equality were important enough, more investment was needed for disadvantaged children during childhood. If the aim of equality were less important, additional investments needed to be directed more generally to people of younger ages.
Source: Friedhelm Pfeiffer and Karsten Reuss, Human Capital Investment Strategies in Europe, Discussion Paper 11-033, Centre for European Economic Research (Mannheim)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-May
An article examined how the gap in language abilities of children with different social backgrounds developed from age 3 to 5. Pre-school attendance did not lead to a catching-up process of children with lower-educated parents: but without it, the gap between children of higher- and lower-educated parents widened even further.
Source: Birgit Becker, 'Social disparities in children's vocabulary in early childhood. Does pre-school education help to close the gap?', British Journal of Sociology, Volume 62 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Mar
A paper said that there were large differences in cognitive and socio-emotional development between children from rich and poor backgrounds at the age of 3, and that this gap widened by the age of 5. Children from poor backgrounds also faced much less advantageous care environments in early childhood than children from better-off families.
Source: Lorraine Dearden, Luke Sibieta, and Kathy Sylva, The Socio-Economic Gradient in Early Child Outcomes: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study, Working Paper 03/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Date: 2011-Mar
A new book examined the development of early years services, focusing on the period since 1997.
Source: Peter Baldock, Developing Early Childhood Services: Past, Present and Future, Open University Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Mar
The report of an independent review recommended that the early years foundation stage (EYFS) be radically slimmed down in order to make it easier to understand, less burdensome, and more focused on making sure that children started school ready to learn. The number of early learning goals against which children were assessed at age 5 should be reduced from 69 to 17.
Source: Clare Tickell, The Early Years: Foundations for Life, Health and Learning, Department for Education
Links: Report | Evidence summary | DE press release | Hansard | CWDC press release | NAHT press release | NCMA press release | NDNA press release | NUT press release | SFT press release | SkillsActive press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Mar
The inspectorate for education and children's services said that childcare in England had improved since the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage. All kinds of provider, from schools to childminders, could deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage well; and children were enjoying their time, whatever type of provision they attended.
Source: The Impact of the Early Years Foundation Stage: A good start, HMI 100231, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: Report | OFSTED press release | NCMA press release | Telegraph report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2011-Feb
The European Commission published an action plan aimed at giving every child a better start in life – including a call for universal access to high-quality pre-school education.
Source: Early Childhood Education and Care: Providing all our children with the best start for the world of tomorrow, European Commission
Links: Action plan | European Commission press release | Eurochild press release | EurActiv report
Date: 2011-Feb
An article examined the nature of the 'core offer' that children's centres were expected to provide, and the way in which they had pursued the goal of integrating staff and services. It highlighted the problems of balancing a focus on the child and on the parent; of reconciling childcare provision as part of the employability agenda and as a means to educational achievement for the child; of permitting local variation while achieving consistency; of the role of monitoring in relation to developing good practice; and of achieving integration in a mixed economy of care. Despite the greater specification of the core offer for children's centres compared with that for Sure Start, there were substantial differences between children's centres in terms of services, while the mixed economy of provision posed considerable challenges to the goal of integration.
Source: Jane Lewis, Rebecca Cuthbert, and Sophie Sarre, 'What are children's centres? The development of CC services, 2004-2008', Social Policy and Administration, Volume 45 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Feb
