Pre-school Education: Standards

(asked on 7th December 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to pages 91-97 of her Department's Study of Early Education and Development (SEED): Study of Quality of Early Years Provision in England, published in December 2017, what steps her Department is taking to end regional variations in quality in early education.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 12th December 2017

The study of early education and development (SEED) findings (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-provision-quality) indicate that improvements in the quality of early years provision have been seen over time. The research showed no variation in quality by area deprivation. Furthermore, the regional variation seen is not indicative of low overall quality in any region.

The research backs up what we know – the number of childcare providers now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted has risen to 94% (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-providers-and-inspections-as-at-31-august-2017) and the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers continues to close at age 5.

The early years workforce strategy published in 2017, sets out government's plans to help employers attract, retain and develop early years staff to support delivery of high quality provision.

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