Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the quality of early education and childcare available to disadvantaged children.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for the provision of learning, development and care for children from birth to age five. The EYFS helps early years providers to prepare young children for school and improve their life chances by delivering high quality early education.

The most recent EYFS Profile results show that the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers has narrowed – 51% of children eligible for free school meals (FSM) achieved a good level of development (GLD) in 2015 compared to 45% in 2014. This is the equivalent of an extra 5,800 children eligible for FSM achieving a GLD.

We want all children, regardless of their starting point, to have access to high quality early education and childcare, as we know this is what makes the difference to outcomes. To help close the gap between disadvantaged children and their better off peers we introduced the early learning programme for two-year-olds in September 2013. Around 160,000 of our most disadvantaged two-year-olds are already benefiting.

We have also introduced the Early Years Pupil Premium, worth £50 million a year. This provides nurseries and schools delivering the early education entitlement with an extra 53p an hour for disadvantaged three and four year olds to help them close the gap in school readiness.