Nursery World - Funded early education hours not enough to 'narrow the gap'

Parents with young children who work 20 hours a week or more should be entitled to up to 25 hours a week of free early education, a think tank has proposed.

The think tank says that making it easier for parents to work and access high quality early education is vital because it increases family income and makes a difference to children's early development before they start school.

CentreForum’s paper on early years also calls for higher qualification requirements for staff working with children from poorer backgrounds to help narrow the gap between them and their more affluent peers.

The liberal think tank’s report says that while politicians have grasped the importance of early intervention, successive governments have been unclear about the outcomes they want to achieve.

It says that the Government must be explicit about defining what ‘narrowing the gap’ means and how progress will be measured, so that no child is held back and all have a chance to succeed.

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