Early years settings prepare for EYFS reforms

The long-awaited publication ?of the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at the end of last month followed months of consultation with practitioners, charities and parents.

Practitioners have broadly welcomed the resulting framework as simpler and more effective in focusing on early intervention and children’s development.

However, with just months before they must implement the slimmed-down framework in September, the coming weeks will be critical to ensure that young children benefit from the changes, including the new two-year-old progress checks and the reduction in early learning goals (see box).

While providers who are affiliated to membership bodies such as the National Childminding Association (NCMA) and the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) will be offered support to fully grasp the new EYFS, assurances are being sought over what level of help other practitioners will receive.

Progress checks
Anita Kerwin-Nye, director of The Communication Trust, says it is particularly important that early years settings are trained to identify communication needs – one of the three key areas in the revised framework.

“We are pleased that the government is placing such ?an emphasis on good com-munication skills and on identifying children who struggle so they can get help,” she says. “However, this will only be a benefit to children and their families if staff locally are properly trained to carry out progress checks and advise families accordingly.”

The sentiment is echoed by shadow children’s minister Sharon Hodgson, who believes that without clear instruction, measures such as the two-year-old check could lose their impact.

“The commitment to development checks for two-year-olds is welcome, provided that staff have the necessary training and qualifications to identify any problems, and that resources such as early years special educational needs co-ordinators are available to help ensure that children get any help they need,” she says.

“The government needs to spell out how this can be ensured by September, and how those two-year-olds who aren’t in childcare settings will benefit from a development check.”

Dame Clare Tickell, who conducted the review into the EYFS, tells CYP Now that the broad support for the changes across the sector will mean that settings across the country are quick to embrace the changes.

“One of the reasons that I considered slimming down EYFS was partly in response to lots of people saying that ‘we understand it now, so we don’t need some-thing quite so huge’,” she says.

She argues that councils should focus support for adapting to the changes at smaller providers.

Frontline services
“It was very clear that there was going to be less infrastructural support while I was doing the review,” she explains. “A number of local authorities I spoke to were talking about the back office reductions that they were looking to make, while continuing to deliver frontline services.

“I hope those local authorities will concentrate on less resourced smaller providers when they are thinking about who they offer more support to.”

But Lucy Giffin, chair of ?the Croydon Childminding Association, questions whether there will be sufficient help to understand the revised EYFS.

She says the implementation ?of the framework will be more difficult now that her council ?has replaced its dedicated childminding support team with early years support teams attached to children’s centres.

“The council is running 78 free sessions to take people through the revised EYFS, but of those sessions, only around eight are targeted at childminders,” she says. “The council had initially asked if there were any child-minders interested in holding ?the training sessions, but the whole point is that it is the council’s duty to tell us what the changes are and how to implement them.”

Giffin does believe that the new framework could be positive overall, a view that is echoed by colleagues. But she adds that without a dedicated professional to answer questions and concerns about practice, many child-minders will continue with the framework as it is, particularly those that are not graded “outstanding” by Ofsted.

Preparations
NCMA says it will be helping members to prepare for the new framework through a series of webinars on specific aspects of interest to its members and by issuing regular email updates; updating information on the members’ area of its website and launching a new EYFS book.  

NCMA joint chief executive Liz Bayram says: “The fewer learning goals, along with the commitment to reduce EYFS paperwork and bureaucracy, will be most welcome to our 38,000 childminders.”

The NDNA has constructed a table that compares the current EYFS with the framework that comes into force in September, which will be free for its members.

It has also made hard copies of the revised document to ensure that those who do not want to download and print the docu-ments can read the framework ?for a charge. 

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the association, says: “It is important that nurseries familiarise themselves with the revised framework and what this means for their setting in preparation for when this becomes statutory in September.”

Revised EYFS framework

• The framework sets out three “prime areas” that must shape educational programmes in early years settings: communication and language; physical development; and personal, social and emotional development. Within that, children should learn literacy; maths; understanding the world; and expressive arts and design
• These areas underpin the 17 early learning goals which include listening and understanding; health and self-care; managing behaviour; and reading
• When a child is aged between two and three, practitioners must review their progress, and provide parents and/or carers with a short written summary of their development
• The EYFS Profile must be completed for each child in the final term of the year when they turn five. This should provide a picture of a child’s knowledge, understanding and abilities and their readiness for year 1
• A practitioner must be designated to take lead responsibility for safe-guarding children in every setting