Pre-school Education
(asked on 5th December 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to improve regional inequalities in early years provision; and if she will make it her policy to include measures to improve such inequalities in the Northern Powerhouse schools strategy.
Every child deserves the best possible start in life and high-quality early education is key to future outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged children. That is why we are working hard to ensure parents and children - wherever they live in England - have access to high quality early years education places through the funded 15 hour entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds and for all three- and four-year-olds. The Early Years Pupil Premium provides over £300 per eligible child to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children and, from September 2017, working parents who meet the eligibility criteria will also have access to an additional 15 hours of funded early education.
Our early years funding formula, which commences in April 2017, includes an additional needs factor – to better target funding towards local authorities with a higher relative proportion of children with additional needs – and an area cost adjustment to reflect the different costs of providing childcare in different areas of the country. This will help to ensure that all children can access quality early education in their area.
In May 2016, the department commissioned a feasibility study to investigate the regional gap in early years attainment at age 5. The study recommended undertaking longitudinal analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study (MSC) to assess variation in attainment and evaluate the potential drivers of a regional gap. The department has commissioned a study to build on the recommendations of the feasibility report, which will bring greater insight into the potential drivers on the regional attainment gap.
As indicated in the Northern Powerhouse Strategy published in November 2016, this department will be working with northern city regions and other areas in the North of England facing the greatest challenges, to explore options for improving the delivery of early years outcomes: