Around the start of the summer holidays, the government published its long-awaited Best Start in Life strategy. We were expecting it to arrive in the autumn, so its early release took us all by surprise.
If you haven’t managed to read it yet, I’m here to help with the main points. Here are some things to do now or to think ahead about…
The Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, has said on numerous occasions that early years is her “number one priority”.
The Best Start in Life strategy sets out the first steps in her promise for a decade of renewal. Building on the commitments made in the Plan for Change, it lays the foundations for further reform. This will no doubt be gradually revealed in due course.
The DfE says it will spend close to £1.5 billion in England over the next three years on improving family services and early years education.
Here we focus on the headlines as we know them so far…
This is about continuing the rollout of 30 hours of government-funded early education and childcare from nine months old for eligible working parents.
It’s also about increasing the supply of term-time wraparound childcare. (The rollout out of free breakfast clubs in every primary school will also continue to grow.)
This one’s about shaping and supporting effective oversight at local or regional level to deliver the high-quality early education and childcare settings (including childminding) families need.
This includes creating more places where they are most needed, together with school-based nurseries.
A consultation will take place over the next year on changes to how early years funding is allocated and distributed. This is to ensure it is:
There will also be more funding to promote inclusion and an expectation of better access for children with SEND.
This one is about working to increase the number of children achieving a good level of development (GLD) by 2028. Ideas include:
The government wants to grow the number of Best Start Family Hubs to up to 1,000. This builds on proven early identification and intervention approaches.
A key objective for most of us is managing the business and operational changes and challenges promoted by the expansion of the early years entitlements.
We all want to deliver this well for families while ensuring the sustainability of our settings and workforce.
It will be fascinating to see how the new entitlement influences and affects parental employment choices and behaviours, and how in turn this will drive and shape demand for childcare and how it is delivered and by whom.
This is most definitely something to manage and monitor throughout the whole year.
How local authorities’ and regional mayoral authorities’ roles evolve and develop will be interesting. What tools and powers will they have to help create, manage, and support the market across all types of provision, including harnessing the collective power across local authority boundaries?
This has the potential to revolutionise the relationship between providers and local councils and combine resources for greater effectiveness.
Few people don’t want changes to the way early years and childcare are funded by government via local authorities, whether that be providers, local councils, or indeed families.
Changes must aim to simplify an overly complicated system but also provide greater equity across all families, both disadvantaged and working.
This will not happen quickly, and it seems it could take the whole year before proposals are formed. The action here is to consider various scenarios and their effect on business models as they’re discussed in the process so we are prepared for the eventual outcome.
The ambition is to ensure inclusion becomes standard practice everywhere through more support, training, and a streamlined and effective funding system.
This has the aim of doing more to achieve early identification and swift intervention that reduces the need for later services.
Is it time for an inclusion review in your setting? Not only should you expect more frequent inspection visits in the future, but also that SEND and inclusion will receive a higher priority focus from inspectors.
With a return to many of the previous Sure Start working principles and the creation of Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority area, there will be opportunities to communicate, connect and collaborate.
Stronger Practice Hubs will be more widespread, and this offers extended continuous professional development opportunities, networking, and quality improvement support for many more settings. If you aren’t connected already, make sure you are in the future.
James Hempsall OBE is managing director of Coram Hempsall’s.
Employment law – What you need to know in Early Years
Editors picks
