Ofsted's 'Early years report 2015' was published on Monday 13 July 2015. It looks at the performance of the early years sector. At its launch Nick Hudson, National Director Early Years presented the report's findings.

1. Early Years Report 2015
13 July 2015

2. The proportion of good and
outstanding providers has risen 18
percentage points in five years

3. Every type of provider now has
high levels of good or outstanding
provision
Early years framework:
All registered provision 85%
Nurseries and pre-schools 87%
Childminders 84%
Section 5 inspections:
Nursery schools 97%
Early years judgement within Section 5 inspections
Schools with early years 86%

4. Standards in childminding have
risen at the fastest rate

5. Rising standards means…
 Less variation between areas – the gap between the highest and
lowest performing region for childminders is now only six
percentage points
 Very high levels of performance in some areas - 91% of nurseries
and pre-schools in the North East are now good or outstanding
 Fewer inadequate providers and swifter re-inspection when a
provider is found inadequate
 A quick response to concerns from parents and the public about
safety - over 4,000 investigations of which 30% resulted in action
against the provider

6. But improvements won’t benefit
children who can’t access places:
Population is up but places are static

7. Children are benefiting from
improved teaching
 Ofsted does not have a preferred style of teaching
 We do define the elements of early years practice that make up
teaching so that there is a common ground and degree of
transparency when making judgements about the quality of
teaching
 We have conducted research to see if a greater focus on teaching
detracts from play – and found that successful providers did not
see teaching as separate from play or infer teaching to mean one
fixed view of how things should be done
 We are publishing a companion good practice report today as well
as eight good practice case studies and four videos on gov.uk

8. Teaching and play in the early
years – a balancing act?
 There is no one way of approaching teaching and play - Teaching
incorporates all of the ways that adults help young children to learn.
 The prioritisation of speech, language and communication was the
cornerstone of leaders’ work with disadvantaged children, especially
funded two-year-olds.
 Where we found disadvantaged two-year-olds making rapid progress,
they spent a higher proportion of their day interacting with adults than
their better-off peers.
 Disadvantaged two-year-olds learned best when they played alongside
older early years children.
 Disadvantaged two-year-olds made the strongest progress when they
continued their learning as three-year-olds in the same setting.

9. Progress is being made towards
better information for parents
Our new common inspection framework will mean that:
 every provider of education will be held to account using a
methodology designed to enable direct comparisons of quality
 there is an even playing field across schools, childminders,
nurseries and pre-schools
 it is easier for parents to put inspection reports side by side and see
how particular providers near them compare.
Government has taken steps to improve access to information and is
implementing plans for:
a single, online resource for parents
better coordination of the information that is currently published
an improved inspection report site and search facility

10. Disadvantage

11. Since 2007 the gap has not narrowed

12. Take up of funded early education
by two year olds was too low
 From September 2014, the eligibility criteria was broadened from
20% to 40% of all children aged two. This represented 285,000
children.
 As at the end of January 2015, 157,000 two-year-olds had taken
up a funded early education place – 58% of all the children who
were eligible.
 This means that there were 113,000 children who had not taken up
their place.

13. The inspection for children’s
centres also remains low

14. Making the difference for the most
disadvantaged children will
require:
 Greater clarity about who is responsible for outcomes in the early
years
 A strong focus from health visitors on readiness for school
 Clearer means to hold providers to account who are not doing
enough for the most disadvantaged
 Better incentives for schools to work collaboratively with feeder
nurseries, pre-schools and childminders
 More two year olds in schools – only 2% of disadvantaged two
year olds are in maintained schools even though there are real
advantages to school-based provision for this group.

15. Too many two year olds in schools
are from better off families
 In 2015, there were 43,000 two-year-olds in primary schools.
 In the same year, 40% of two-year-olds were eligible for a funded
place because of disadvantage. If schools were taking a
proportionate number of funded two-year-olds, this would
represent over 17,000 places for these children.
 But, there were only 3,430 children with a funded place. This
means that primary school places for two-year-olds were
disproportionately occupied by children from better off families.
 There are 40 local authorities where there are no disadvantaged
two‑year-olds in any maintained school.