The current contract runs until 31 March 2020.
The announcement was made by the NCB’s chief executive Anna Feuchtwang in the Foundation Years newsletter, who said, ‘I am delighted that the National Children's Bureau is now Department for Education’s (DfE) Stakeholder Engagement Partner for the Early Years because we know these early years are the foundation on which children’s future life chances are built.’
The DfE said that NCB were appointed following a fair and open competitive process and would work in partnership with the department to provide effective stakeholder engagement including maintaining links between the sector and wider government agenda.
This includes management and maintenance of the Foundation Years website, which is funded by the DfE Early Years VCS programme to support the early years workforce.
The contract was previously held by Action for Children.
The NCB team leading the work includes Ellie Suggate-Francis, principal officer for early years and Matthew Dodd, head of policy and public affairs, with support from other staff focusing on early years policy and communications.
Ms Feuchtwang added, ’Like you, we want every child to have access to quality early education and childcare. We want parents and carers to get the right support to nurture good relationships and help their children grow and learn. We want all families, especially the most disadvantaged, to have access to high quality universal services to promote children's early health and development.
‘We can best achieve those aims by working collaboratively, inspiring and sharing good practice and providing honest, constructive challenge to help shape policies that will make the foundation years better.’
- You can sign up for the Foundation Years newsletter here
