July 2024

Early years education recovery

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Introduction

The release provides updated management information (MI) data on the number of practitioners and settings that have registered to take part in specific strands of the early years education recovery (EYER) programme. It provides MI data on the number of practitioners and settings that have registered, completed or been supported by strands of the EYER programme. A breakdown of registrations and completions by local authority is also available to download.

This data is collected by the Department for Education (DfE) from each of the EYER programme delivery partners, with the exception of child development training, which is collected directly by DfE.

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Releases in this series

View releases (1) for Early years education recovery

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About this management information

Background

The early years education recovery (EYER) programme provides workforce training, qualifications, and support for early years settings to help address the impact of the pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children in England. The programme includes a range of strands of activity that provide targeted support to practitioners, leaders and settings. 

Three strands are excluded from this publication:

  • National professional qualification in early years leadership (NPQEYL)
  • Early years initial teacher training (EYITT)
  • Home learning environment (HLE) training

For two of the strands of activity, national professional qualification in early years leadership and early years initial teacher training, management information data is published through other releases. 

NPQEYL data can be found here Teacher and Leader development: ECF and NPQs, Academic year 2023/24 - Explore education statistics

EYITT  data can be found here Initial teacher training performance profiles, Academic year 2022/23 - Explore education statistics

HLE data will be provided separately as part of the Family Hubs / Start for Life programme. 

More detailed information on each strand can be found here: Early years education recovery programme (opens in a new tab) and in the methodology section of this release.

The data collection window varies between the different strands of the programme. See each individual strand for more information about when data collection began and ended.

Definitions

We refer in the publication to:

Registrations

A registration is an instance of a setting or practitioner signing up to a strand within the dates provided, not the number of settings or practitioners that have completed a strand.

Completions

A completion is an instance of a practitioner successfully finishing a course or module (either individually or on behalf of a setting), or a setting having successfully received support. Completion will look different for each strand and the definition is refined in the relevant section.

Group-based providers 

(Identified from the Ofsted register). Providers registered with Ofsted and operating on non-domestic premises. The two main types of group-based providers included in this report are:

Private group-based providers: These are private companies and include employer-run childcare for employees. 

Voluntary group-based providers: These are voluntary organisations, including community groups, charities, churches, or religious groups.

School-based providers

(Identified from the School Census). The two types of school-based providers are:

Maintained nursery schools: These are purpose-built maintained schools specifically for children in their early years and with a qualified teacher present. 

Nursery class childcare settings: These are other maintained schools, and non-maintained schools, offering nursery provision.

Childminders

Ofsted-registered and childminder agency (CMA) registered childminders providing early years care and operating in domestic settings.  CMAs are organisations that can register and quality assure childminders and providers of ‘childcare on domestic premises’ as an alternative to registering with Ofsted.

Primary schools

All state funded primary schools in England, including community schools, foundation and voluntary schools, academies, free schools, special schools and faith schools.

Future early years education recovery programme publications

A future publication of management information data for the early years education recovery programme is planned for Spring 2025. These are planned to include:

  • Updated or final delivery data for each strand 
  • Updated or final strand delivery data broken down by local authority
  • Updated or final strand completion rates 
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Early years child development training

The early years child development training is free online training aimed at practitioners working with children aged 0-4. The training comprises of eight modules, which have been available for different lengths of time; the last module was released in September 2024. At the end of each module, users are invited to take part in an online assessment and on successful completion, receive a certificate. Not all who finish a module complete the assessment; here we define a completion as anyone who has successfully completed an end-of module assessment and gained a certificate. 

Users can complete the modules in any order at any time, based on the areas they have identified as being most important for their personal and professional development. However, it is recommended that they complete in numerical order. While it is encouraged and beneficial to complete all modules, the training is effective for users who choose to complete individual ones. 

Here we show how many registered users have completed ‘1 or more modules’ as well as ‘3 or more modules’. A more comprehensive breakdown is available to download, including a breakdown of registrations and completions by local authority.

Not all users of the training are early years practitioners. As such, as of June 2024, at least 40,142 practitioners had registered to take part in the training, at least 20,286 practitioners had completed 1 or more modules and at least 10,592 practitioners had completed 3 or more modules. 

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Professional development programme (PDP)

The early years professional development programme (PDP) provides Level 3 qualified early years practitioners with training to improve their skills and understanding in supporting young children’s development.

PDP phase 2 and 3 build on the previous phase of the programme, PDP1. Expanding the reach of phase 1, PDP2 was available to practitioners in 51 new local authorities to work with children at risk of falling behind due to COVID-19. Training commenced in January 2022 and practitioners had until July 2022 to complete the training. PDP3 is available to all local authorities in England, although priority is given to settings with high numbers of disadvantaged children (children who receive the early years pupil premium and children who take up the disadvantaged two-year-old offer) and settings that provide care to a child/children with an education, health and care plan. Participants of PDP3 have until March 2025 to complete the programme. On completion, participants receive a certificate.

Between October 2021 and March 2024, 12,000 practitioners were registered to PDP2 and PDP3.

At the end of June 2024, 5,956 practitioners had completed the programmes. 

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Level 3 special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) qualification

The Level 3 SENCO training programme aims to increase specialist expertise in special educational needs and disability (SEND).

Group-based and childminder settings were eligible for the training. School-based Early Years SENCOs were not eligible for the training as there was an expectation that the school would already have access to a SENCO, as mandated by the SEND Code of Practice. 

The qualification was open to Early Years SENCOs, or those due to take up the role, with an existing full and relevant Level 3 qualification and the support of an appropriate setting. Level 2 qualified childminders with some Level 3 training were also able to access the course for the final cohort. One SENCO per setting was eligible, although in extenuating circumstances more than one could gain the qualification, for example if a previously trained SENCO left the setting. 

At the end of the course there is an assessment, which must be passed to complete the training. On completion, participants receive a Level 3 SENCO qualification. Final participants have until November 2024 to complete the training. 

Between October 2022 and March 2024, 6,772 early years settings registered for the training. 

At the end of June 2024, 3,937 settings had a qualified SENCO through completion of the training.

A further breakdown of registrations and completions by practitioner is available for download. 

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Experts and mentors programme

The experts and mentors programme offered support to early years practitioners, leaders and settings by trained experts and mentors. School based and group-based settings, as well as childminders, were eligible. Settings received support over the course of one term, either face to face or virtually. The amount of support required by settings and childminders varied according to need. A setting is considered to have been supported if, as a minimum, they have attended at least one meeting with their expert and/or mentor. A childminder is considered to have been supported if, as a minimum, they have attended at least one mentoring session.

Published here are the number of unique setting registrations and the number of unique settings which received one term of support. In some cases, settings received support over more than one term. This data is not included. As the programme was only available to group/school-based settings initially, the data indicates greater engagement from group/school-based settings who have been able to take up the support for longer. 

3,444 group/school-based settings registered to the programme between April 2022 and May 2024. 1,535 childminders registered between March 2023 and May 2024. 

As of 10th July, 3,086 group/school-based settings received support as well as 1,241 childminders.

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Stronger practice hubs (SPHs)

Early years stronger practice hubs provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-informed professional development for early years practitioners within their networks. There are 18 stronger practice hubs nationwide, with two hubs in each government region. Hubs build local networks by working with providers in their government office regions (GORs). Included here are the number of settings who are members of a stronger practice hub network. 

Within their local networks, hubs support network members through a range of activities and work with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), who provide the evidence around early years pedagogy and processes that support practice change. Hubs also fund places on professional development programmes, delivered in collaboration with EEF. Included here are the number of settings recruited to these professional development programmes. As of June 2024, the early years stronger practice hubs had 7,044 settings within their network membership. 

As of June 2024, there have been 2,123 settings recruited to professional development programmes funded by the hubs in collaboration with EEF.

Additional data is available to download.

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Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI)

The Nuffield Early Language Intervention is a programme developed for reception-age children needing additional support with their speech, language and early literacy skills. This intervention is not available to early years group-based or childminder settings. A different but related oral language programme, called NELI Preschool, is available to support practitioners working with 3-4 year olds in group-based settings. The data for NELI Preschool is not captured here. 

The intervention is usually delivered by trained teaching assistants. Only practitioners from schools who are registered for the NELI programme can access the training. There are 4 courses in total, which should be completed in numerical order. Course 1 provides training on oral language fundamentals and is therefore open to all practitioners at NELI schools. Courses 2 and 3 are designed for those implementing the NELI programme. The fourth course is a refresher course, which is not mandatory, but recommended for practitioners who completed their initial training in previous academic years.  

As of June 2024, 35,792 practitioners had registered for 1 or more courses, 28,268 practitioners had completed 1 or more courses and 11,129 had completed 3 or more courses. A more comprehensive list is available for download. 

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Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Management information

Management information describes aggregate information collated and used in the normal course of business to inform operational delivery, policy development or the management of organisational performance. It is usually based on administrative data but can also be a product of survey data. The terms administrative data and management information are sometimes used interchangeably.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Early years education recovery statistics and data:

Early Years Outcomes and Interventions Research

Email: EYERProject.MAILBOX@EDUCATION.GOV.UK
Contact name: Kay Penny

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