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MINISTER CALLS FOR MORE ACTION TO BUILD ON IMPROVEMENT IN EARLY YEARS DEVELOPMENT
11 October 2007
Five year olds are starting to show increased levels of achievement, according to figures released today, but children’s minister Beverley Hughes is calling for more to be done.
This year’s Foundation Stage Profile (FSP) results show an upturn in the number of children reaching a good level of development in communication, language and literacy and personal, social and emotional development (PSED). The total has increased by one percentage point from last year to 45%, meaning that an additional 7,500 children achieved a good level of development this year.Linking sounds and letters shows the most marked improvement - up by almost 4%. This suggests that the additional focus on communication skills is beginning to yield benefits.Children and Families Minister, Beverley Hughes said: “This year’s results show that we are beginning to make progress in the right direction. They are a credit to the hard work that parents, practitioners and local authorities have done to make sure that young children have the best possible start in life. “The overall level of improvement, particularly in communication skills which have been the focus of recent investment, shows that our reforms are having a genuine impact on children’s development. “Of course we need to do more. I welcome the fact that the achievement of disadvantaged children has risen in step with other children, but I do not believe we should be satisfied with this. It is disappointing that the gap between these children has not narrowed. Both we and local authorities must focus our efforts on improving the life chances of children who are the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. “We have invested over £21bn in the early years, and will spend an additional £4bn in the next spending period to give all children the best start in life. That is why we have established 1,500 Sure Start Children’s Centres in some of the most disadvantaged areas in the country, and are committed to having one in every community by 2010. We have also provided guidance to Sure Start centres on how they can reach out to their very most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.”“We are working hard to attract and retain good people to the early years workforce and are providing a further £175m over three years to work towards fulfilling our commitment to ensure that there is at least one graduate working in each early years setting. Research shows that attending a high quality early years setting has a positive impact on a child’s ability to learn and develop. That is why we are committed to investing in the early years.“I want local authorities, schools and early years providers to use the information offered by the Foundation Stage Profile effectively. Some authorities are already showing what can be achieved by using the profile data to really understand which schools, early years settings and policy initiatives are making the most impact on children’s development, and helping others to learn from that good practice. Today I call on every local authority to follow this approach so that they can make the improvements needed to make a difference to children’s lives.” The Foundation Stage Profile (FSP), introduced in 2003, is a practitioner-led observational assessment of each child when he or she turns 5. The Government does not believe it is effective or appropriate to test children at this age, and continues to believe that a tool based on observational assessment is the best way for practitioners to understand children’s development and decide on how best to offer them personalised support. The Government today issued its response to the Public Accounts Committee report on Sure Start Children’s Centres. It maintained that children’s centres are working and are making considerable progress in providing better services for young children and their families. It also reminded the PAC that a parental survey from March 2007 showed that 90 per cent of parents were very satisfied with the services they had received at children’s centres. The response provided information on all the action taken to improve services, such as issuing practice guidance on how to engage disadvantaged families, providing a toolkit on how to engage with excluded groups and business planning guidance and staff training to improve financial management and obtain value for money. By Autumn 2007 we also expect 1,200 centre managers to have obtained or be working towards the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL), which is recognised as a national qualification for those working in multi-agency, multi-disciplinary environments. The revised version for the 2008/09 academic year will include more on financial management.
Editor's Notes
This press notice relates to 'England'
Effective Practice in Pre School Education Study • The Foundation Stage is a learning and development framework designed to assist early years practitioners to plan activities to meet the diverse needs of children aged 3-5. It covers 6 different areas of learning which reflect the range and depth of children’s development in this phase and ensure that they are offered a wide variety of opportunities to learn and grow. The six areas are: Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Communication, Language and Literacy; Mathematical Development; Knowledge and Understanding of the World; Physical Development and Creative Development.• The Foundation Stage Profile (FSP) was introduced in 2003 as a tool for teachers to assess, through observation, how each child is progressing in relation to the 6 areas of learning. The FSP involves teachers observing children in their day-to-day play-based learning activities during the year in which the child turns 5 (the reception year). It is not a test – the children are not required to do anything differently. The Government does not think it is effective or appropriate to test children this young and that is not the purpose of the FSP. It is a record of where children are in their development within each area at the end of the year they start compulsory schooling.• Each of the 6 areas of learning consists of 13 scale points on which the child is observed. Unlike the key stages, the benchmark for this target refers to a “good level of development” rather than an expected or required level. The term “good development” refers to a child scoring 6 points or more in each of the Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication, Language and Literacy scales. There are 7 scales across those two areas (3 in PSED and 4 in CLL) which are key to achievement across the profile and to future attainment in Key Stage 1 and beyond. A score of 6 or more in any of the individual scales signals that the child is working securely within that scale and a score of 6 in each of these scales indicates a “good level” of development at age 5.• We have, over the past few years, seen fluctuations in the FSP results. This is mainly due to the fact that the Profile is still relatively new and it has taken time to develop teachers’ understanding of and confidence in the process and to train them to use the Profile effectively. It has also taken time for local authorities to ensure that the assessments carried out by teachers are consistent. The improvements of both teachers’ assessments and local authorities’ arrangements to ensure consistency contributed to a decline in results in 2005 and 2006. Although these improvements are continuing, there are signs that this year’s results are starting to signal the start of a more robust and reliable dataset.
Contact Details
Public Enquiries 0870 000 2288, info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
Press Notice 2007/0187
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