Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to address falling school readiness, following the findings of the Kindred Squared School Readiness Survey, published on 30 January.

The government welcomes the focus from the Kindred Squared School Readiness Survey. Preparing children for school should be a partnership between parents, early years settings and schools.

That is why this government has set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. We will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028.

This is an increase from 67.7% currently and would mean an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children a year hitting developmental goals.

To achieve this milestone, we will:

• Roll out government-funded childcare entitlements and support 3,000 new and expanded school-based nurseries, increasing the availability of high quality childcare places.
• Offer sustained professional development and work with providers to help spread evidence-based programmes, such as Maths Champions, as part of comprehensive plans to drive high quality early education and care.
• Ensure that the reception year sets children up for success, by rolling out evidence-based programmes that boost early literacy and numeracy skills, including the Nuffield Early Language Intervention.
• Strengthen and join up family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood. This includes continuing to invest in and build up Family Hubs and Start for Life programmes to support early child health, parenting and home learning programmes, strengthen health visiting services for all families and improve early identification of special educational needs and disabilities.

We will continue to work closely with parents and teachers as we deliver our ambitious reforms to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.