In a policy briefing published today (24 January) by the Trust, education and social mobility experts state that current Government plans not only risk exacerbating inequalities but worsening the quality of education for all young children.
Reviewing the widespread evidence of the mounting pressures facing the early years sector, the Trust warns of a ‘major deterioration in the education of disadvantaged young children’.
It states that current Conservative plans to treat the sector primarily as childcare, with less focus on its role as education, ‘puts quality at risk’ and ‘widens gaps in access’.
The expanded childcare offer is likely to ‘further widen’ the early years attainment gap as just 20 per cent of families earning less than £20,000 a year will have access to funded places, compared to 80 per cent of those with household incomes over £45,000, it says.
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