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Policy
Improving the quality and range of education and childcare from birth to 5 years
Contents
Issue
Providing children with good-quality education and care in their earliest years can help them succeed at school and later in life. This contributes to creating a society where opportunities are equal regardless of background.
Affordable and easily accessible childcare is also crucial for working families - it can help create more opportunities for parents who wish, or need, to work and raise children at the same time.
We believe we can improve early education by building a stronger and better-qualified early years workforce. We also aim to provide more good-quality affordable childcare.
Actions
To extend early education to those who need it most, and to give parents greater choice of childcare, we are:
- extending early learning places to around 40% of all 2-year-olds from September 2014
- helping parents arrange more informal childcare by allowing them to pay a neighbour or relative not registered with Ofsted for up to 3 hours of childcare a day
- introducing new childminder agencies that will provide rigorous training and match childminders with parents
- encouraging more schools to offer nursery provision and extend provision from 8am to 6pm
- helping schools to offer affordable after-school and holiday care, either alone or working with private or voluntary providers
- reducing unnecessary regulations to help good nurseries expand their business
To help parents with the costs of childcare, we will:
- introduce a new tax-free childcare scheme to support working families from autumn 2015, worth up to £2,000 per child each year
- increase the support available to lower-income families from April 2016, as part of Universal Credit
- provide £50 million extra funding in 2015 to 2016 to nurseries, schools and other providers of government-funded early education to support disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-olds
To improve the quality of early education and childcare, we are:
- improving qualifications for the early years workforce and introducing early years educator qualifications in September 2014
- encouraging high-quality entrants to the early years workforce through bursaries for early years apprentices
- introducing Teach First in the early years
- working with Ofsted to reform the inspection system and challenge weak providers to improve more quickly
- simplifying registration arrangements for early years providers, while keeping controls to make sure children are safe
Background
In September 2010 all 3- and 4-year-olds became entitled to 15 hours a week of state-funded early education. As a result, 96% of 3- and 4-year-olds currently receive state-funded education.
From September 2013, we extended the entitlement to 15 hours of free education per week for all looked-after 2-year-olds and 2-year-olds from families who meet the criteria for free school meals (approximately 130,000 children).
From September 2014 we will extend the number of early learning places for 2-year-olds further, to around 260,000 children.
In January 2013 we published ‘More great childcare’, which included detail on planned reforms to:
- raise the standard and quality of the early years workforce
- give high-quality providers the freedom to offer more places
- give parents more choice
In July 2013 we published ‘More affordable childcare’, which sets out our plans to help working parents access the childcare they need when they need it. We also updated statutory guidance for local authorities on early education and childcare.
In the same month, the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) published new criteria for early years educator qualifications and the Teachers’ Standards for early years, which provide detail of the standards new early years teachers have to meet.
On 2 August 2013 Ofsted published the response to its consultation on improving inspection of early years providers.
In September 2013 we introduced Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS) and early years teacher training. EYTS replaces the Early Years Professional Status programme.
In March 2014 we published a revised framework for the early years foundation stage (EYFS), which will come into force from September 2014.
Who we’ve consulted
In order to extend free early learning to 2-year-olds, we consulted on:
- introducing free early learning for the 20% most disadvantaged 2-year olds, from November 2011 to February 2012
- extending free early learning to 40% of 2-year-olds, from 5 July to 15 October 2012
In order to improve the quality and range of early learning, we consulted on:
- the level of qualifications that would enable us to relax the limits on the number of children each member of staff in a nursery can look after, from January to 25 March 2013
- changing the role local authorities play in early education and childcare, from 25 March to 6 May 2013
- proposals to introduce a baseline check for children at the start of their time in reception, from 17 July to 11 October 2013
In order to make childcare more available and affordable, we consulted on:
- simplifying childcare regulations to remove burdens and simplify processes, from 16 July to 30 September 2013
- plans to introduce tax-free childcare for working families and additional assistance with childcare for parents through Universal Credit, from 5 August to 14 September 2013
- changing planning rules to allow a much wider range of buildings to be converted to nurseries, from 6 August to 15 October 2013
- introducing childminder agencies and changes to the local authority role, from 28 March to 22 May 2014
Bills and legislation
The bills and legislation covering childcare and early education are:
- The Childcare Act 2006, as amended by The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 and The Children and Families Act 2014
- Local Authority (Duty to Secure Early Years Provision Free of Charge) Regulations 2012
- The Early Years Foundation Stage (Learning and Development Requirements) (Amendment) Order 2012
- The Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2012
- The Early Years Foundation Stage (Exemptions from Learning and Development Requirements) Regulations 2008 as amended by The Early Years Foundation Stage (Exemptions from Learning and Development Requirements) (Amendment) 2012, which came into force on October 2012
- a new statutory framework for the EYFS, which will come into effect from September 2014
- The Children and Families Act 2014
The following regulations cover childminder agencies: