Plans to roll out the testing of four-year-olds in their first weeks at school have been unveiled by the government in the face of widespread hostility from many teachers who have vowed to oppose the new assessments...
Shock figures show how the cost of childcare has soared – while wages lag behind
The cost of childcare has soared by up to 47% since 2010, shock figures compiled by Labour reveal. Analysis shows nursery care now costs £121 a week for a two-year-old in England – up from £82 eight years ago. Yet...
As many as 1,000 children’s centres now closed, study finds
Around 1,000 children’s centres have closed since 2009, twice as many as officially acknowledged, an education charity has claimed. The Sutton Trust said that official government figures, which show a 14 per cent...
Early years sector ‘increasingly relying on volunteers’
Early years providers are increasingly relying on unpaid volunteers, an analysis of the childcare workforce by the Education Policy Institute has concluded. Concerns have been raised about a reliance on volunteer staff...
Concern at rising infant mortality rate in England and Wales
More babies are dying within a year of being born, in a “disturbing reversal” of several decades of the NHS’s success in reducing infant mortality. Health professionals, charities and midwives voiced serious concern at...
Early years sector ‘increasingly relying on volunteers’
Early years providers are increasingly relying on unpaid volunteers, an analysis of the childcare workforce by the Education Policy Institute has concluded. Researchers examining data on the early years workforce in...
