Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by the East of England APPG and East of England Local Government Association entitled Levelling Up in the East of England: the Region’s Progress towards the Government’s Twelve Levelling Up Missions, published on 13 December 2022, if she will take steps to implement the recommendations on (a) improving and (b) extending (i) early years (A) support, (B) education and (C) special educational needs.

The department is committed to ensuring that every child in an early years setting, regardless of their background, where they live, or any additional needs they may have, receives high quality education and care. In 2021, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework was reformed. The EYFS framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow, to ensure that every child has the best start in life and is prepared for school. The reforms aim to improve outcomes for all children, particularly disadvantaged children, and to reduce the amount of paperwork so that practitioners and teachers can spend more time supporting children through rich curriculum activities.

The department has built up a significant early education and childcare offer to parents. In 2010, to support children to develop social skills and prepare them for school, the government extended free early education and care for all three and four-year-olds, regardless of parental income or working status, from 12.5 hours a week to 15 hours a week.

In 2013, the department introduced 15 hours of free early education and care for disadvantaged two year-olds, which aims to support improved educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged children, who are the least likely to take up formal childcare, but who stand to benefit from it the most.

In 2017, the department introduced an additional 15 hours, providing a total of 30 hours of free early education and care for working parents of three and four-year-olds, if they earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at national minimum or living wage and under £100,000 per year. This can help save working parents up to £6,000 a child per year.

Getting this right is fundamentally important for parents and children, and the department continues to look at all options to improve the cost, flexibility and availability of childcare, and crucially, outcomes for children.

The department is providing a package of training, qualifications, expert guidance and targeted support for the early years sector, to support learning and recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children. This includes funding training of up to 5,000 early years Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) resulting in an accredited Level 3 Early Years SENCO qualification. The Level 3 Early Years SENCO training became available in October 2022 and will run until August 2024. SENCOs working in group-based and childminder settings are eligible for this package of support, which is nationally available, with targeting in specific areas based on levels of disadvantage.