Nursery World - Gap likely to grow in social mobility 'coldspots'

The Government’s shift in focus towards childcare as a means of getting parents back to work, away from good quality early years education, is affecting settings’ quality and impacting social mobility, a cross-government report warns.

The findings come from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility, made up of MPs and peers, and the report on their inquiry into the regional attainment gap in England.

This highlights the fundamental role of early years education in a child’s life, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are already 11 months behind their better-off peers when they start school.

The attainment gap - the gap in exam results between pupils from different backgrounds - is one of the key factors leading to social mobility 'coldspots'.

While it says that indications are that the attainment gap is narrowing, at its current rate, we are still over 40 years away from closing the gap between disadvantaged five-year-olds and the more advantaged.

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