Methodology

Early years foundation stage profile results

Published: 22 October 2026

Background

These annual statistics report on teacher assessments of children’s development at the end of the early years foundation stage (EYFS), typically the summer term of the academic year in which a child turns 5 (reception year). The assessment framework, or EYFS profile, consists of 17 early learning goals (ELGs) across 7 areas of learning.

This is the fifth publication since the 2021/22 EYFS reforms (opens in new tab) were introduced in September 2021, in which the EYFS profile was significantly revised. It is therefore not possible to directly compare assessment outcomes since 2021/22 with earlier years.

The statutory EYFS framework (opens in new tab) sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure all children have the best start in life and are prepared for school. It requires that children be assessed against the EYFS profile, typically in the summer term of the academic year in which they turn 5 (reception year).

The EYFS Profile is intended to provide an accurate representation of each child’s development at the end of the EYFS to support their transition into year 1. It comprises an assessment of the child’s outcomes in relation to 17 early learning goals (ELGs) across 7 areas of learning.

The 3 prime areas of learning are: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; and physical development. These prime areas are particularly important for children’s healthy development and are the basis for successful learning in the other 4 specific areas of learning: literacy; mathematics; understanding the world; and expressive arts and design.

As shown in the table below, children are defined as having a good level of development at the end of the EYFS if they are at the expected level for the 12 ELGs within the 5 areas of learning relating to: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; and mathematics.

Area of learning		Early learning goal	Part of the good level of development measure
Prime areas of learning	Communication and language	Listening, attention and understanding	Yes
	Communication and language	Speaking	Yes
	Personal, social and emotional development	Self-regulation	Yes
		Managing self	Yes
		Building relationships	Yes
	Physical development	Gross motor skills	Yes
	Physical development	Fine motor skills	Yes
Specific areas of learning	Literacy	Comprehension	Yes
		Word reading	Yes
		Writing	Yes
	Mathematics	Number	Yes
	Mathematics	Numerical patterns	Yes
	Understanding the world	Past and present	No
		People, culture and communities	No
		The natural world	No
	Expressive arts and design	Creating with materials	No
	Expressive arts and design	Being imaginative and expressive	No

Changes to the EYFS Profile in 2021

As part of wider early education reforms to the EYFS, the EYFS profile (opens in new tab) was revised significantly in September 2021. Changes from the previous framework (opens in new tab) include:

revisions to all 7 areas of learning in the EYFS, with new educational programmes that set out what children must experience and learn about.
revisions to all 17 ELGs across the 7 areas of learning to make these clearer and more precise and to make it easier for practitioners to understand what is required for a child to be at the expected level of development.
removal of exceeding assessment band.
removal of statutory local authority moderation.

It is therefore not possible to directly compare assessment outcomes since 2021/22 with earlier years.

The assessment scales and exemptions

Children are assessed against the 17 early learning goals as either being at the emerging or the expected level at the end of the EYFS.

The early years foundation stage profile must be completed for all children unless:

an exemption has been granted for the setting (reserved for independent schools or schools with established principles in conflict with the EYFS).
an exemption has been granted for an individual child (reserved only for cases where a child’s family has religious or philosophical beliefs that cannot be reconciled with the EYFS).
the child is continuing in early years foundation stage provision beyond the year in which they turn 5.

For more detailed information see the EYFS profile handbook (opens in new tab).

Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)

Disruption to early years provision and family life and the limiting of social contact with peers during the pandemic is likely to have affected EYFS assessment outcomes. Early years settings were closed to all but vulnerable children and children of critical workers between March and June 2020, when the children taking the EYFS assessment in 2021/22 were approximately 3 years old, in 2022/23 were approximately 2 years old, in 2023/24 were approximately 1 year old and in 2024/25 were less than 1 year old. Many settings and services, including stay and play sessions, will have faced ongoing disruption of varying degrees - for example due to staff absence. Social contact with peers was limited for much of 2020 and some of 2021.

Decreases were seen between 2018/19 and 2021/22 in attainment elsewhere. The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check (in year 1) fell over the period (down 6 percentage points). This was followed by a rise in 2022/23 (up 3 percentage points) and then another smaller rise in 2023/24 (up 1 percentage point), a pattern also seen in these statistics in the percentage of children with a good level of development and at the expected level across all 17 early learning goals. However, the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check was unchanged in 2024/25, in contrast to the rises seen in these statistics.

It is not possible to ascertain the scale of the impact of the pandemic on the development of children at national, sub-national or individual levels at the end of the EYFS from the EYFS statistics since 2021/22 alone. This is because the EYFS Profile (opens in new tab) was revised in September 2021 and so direct comparisons between data from 2021/22 onwards and earlier years are not possible.

Increases between 2021/22 and 2024/25

Some of the increases between 2021/22 and 2024/25 may be attributable to gradual recovery from disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and practitioners having greater familiarisation with the new assessment framework, introduced in September 2021.

Accredited Official Statistics badging

These accredited official statistics have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (opens in new tab) (OSR). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics (opens in new tab). Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (opens in new tab).

Accreditation signifies their compliance with the authority's Code of Practice for Statistics (opens in new tab) which broadly means these statistics are:

managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
meet identified user needs
produced according to sound methods
well explained and readily accessible

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics (opens in new tab) that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website (opens in new tab).

In addition, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics and have made the following recent improvements:

for the 2021/22 statistics (and subsequent releases), reviewed the format of the underlying data sets and restructured them to ensure the files were consolidated as far as possible and better met ‘tidy’ data standards. This ensured it was easier for users to find the statistics they needed.
for the 2021/22 statistics (and subsequent releases), following the reforms to the EYFS Profile in September 2021, added a new measure ‘Average number of early learning goals (ELGs) at expected level per child’ to replace the average point score measure from the 2018/19 and earlier publications (see section ‘Data processing’, sub-section ‘Calculated data items’ below).
for the 2021/22 statistics (and subsequent releases), included information on data quality issues for specific local authorities and years.
for the 2022/23 statistics (and subsequent releases), improved the methodology for the characteristics on free school meals eligibility and term of birth (see section ‘Data processing’, sub-section ‘Child characteristics’ below).
for the 2023/24 statistics (and subsequent releases), introduced a new data set (now data set 6) and accompanying commentary on the number of early learning goals (children reached at the expected level) across all 17 early learning goals and across all 12 early learning goals contributing to a good level of development.
for the 2024/25 statistics (and subsequent releases), added ethnicity minor, term of birth, and first language breakdowns to data set 3.
for the 2024/25 statistics (and subsequent releases), across all data sets, reviewed and updated child characteristics breakdowns and naming conventions in line with GSS guidance (opens in new tab) and data harmonisation principles within the Department for Education.
for the 2024/25 statistics (and subsequent releases), provided access to data sets 1, 4 and 7 via the Explore Education Statistics API. View the available data products in the data catalogue or read the supporting API documentation (opens in new tab) for further information.
for the 2024/25 statistics (and subsequent releases), ensured data sets 1 to 4, 6, and 7 contained unrounded data, to ensure comparisons across years, geographic areas, characteristics, etc could be calculated on a more precise basis if required.
for the 2024/25 statistics (and subsequent releases), introduced a new data set on the number of early learning goal combinations (children reached at the expected level) across all 12 early learning goals contributing to a good level of development.
for the 2025/26 statistics, four new indicators were added to data sets 1, 3, and 4 showing the count and percentage of children who had 0 out of the 12 ELGs contributing to a good level of development at the expected level, and the count and percentage who had 0 out of all 17 ELGs at the expected level.
for the 2025/26 statistics, a percentage of children indicator was added to data set 3.
for the 2025/26 statistics, the format of data set 5 was amended to ensure it only covered core indicators. In addition, the data was presented on an unrounded basis for the first time to ensure comparisons across years could be calculated on a more precise basis if required.

Data collection

The source of data for this publication is the early years foundation stage (EYFS) profile collection, an annual statutory child-level collection from all local authorities in England, which runs from the beginning of June to the end of July. The 2021/22 data collection was the first since 2018/19, as the 2019/20 and 2020/21 collections were cancelled because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Local authorities (LAs) are required to collect and report to the Department for Education (DfE) teacher assessments for:

all children at the end of the EYFS in state-funded schools and maintained nursery schools.
children in private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers where the child’s early years provision is still government-funded at the end of the EYFS (the funding for a child in a PVI provider ceases in the term following the child's 5th birthday, so in practice this includes only children born in the summer term). In 2025/26, an estimated 5,400 children or 0.9% of the total cohort were registered at PVI providers; this proportion has remained relatively stable since the EYFS reforms were introduced in 2021/22.

This publication therefore covers all schools and early years providers with children registered for government-funded early years provision at the end of the EYFS. This includes those children in a reception class.

Schools and early years providers submit data to their local authority who then load the data into the DfE bespoke data collection system: COLLECT (Collections On-Line for Learning, Education, Children and Teachers).

The system is stored securely on DfE servers and is accessed by local authorities via the internet, with each local authority given secure log in details.

COLLECT has built-in validation rules which identify invalid data (i.e. errors) or where the data quality is questionable but could be accurate in certain circumstances (i.e. queries). This allows local authorities to identify errors and clean the data before they submit it to DfE.

Local authorities are encouraged to fix all errors and double-check data where queries are flagged. Notes can be added to their return if there is a genuine reason for unusual data.

Further information on how local authorities should submit early years foundation stage profile data can be found in the Early years foundation stage profile return guide (opens in new tab).

Data processing

Production of this statistics publication

Once the Department for Education has received all data from local authorities through the early years foundation stage (EYFS) profile collection, it is matched into the national pupil database (NPD). The NPD is a longitudinal database linking EYFS profile outcomes with other DfE data collections. It means school census and early years census data can be used to produce breakdowns of EYFS profile outcomes by child characteristics. The NPD also excludes shielded children, children with parents in the armed forces who are being educated abroad, and duplicate records.

Calculated data items

Average number of early learning goals (ELGs) at expected level per child

This is the mean number of early learning goals children were at the expected level for. The maximum number would be 17, if every child was at the expected level for every early learning goal. This measure replaces the average point score measure from the 2018/19 and earlier publications.

Number and percentage of children at expected level across all ELGs

This is a count and percentage of children who were at the expected level across all 17 ELGs.

Number and percentage of children at expected level in Communication & Language and Literacy areas of learning

This is a count and percentage of children who were at the expected level for the ELGs in the communication and language area of learning and the ELGs in the literacy area of learning.

Number and percentage of children with a good level of development

This is a count and percentage of children who were at the expected level for all 12 ELGs within the 5 areas of learning relating to: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; and mathematics.

Number and percentage of children at emerging level in early learning goal or area of learning

This is a count and percentage of children who were at the emerging level for a specific ELG or area of learning.

Number and percentage of children at expected level in early learning goal or area of learning

This is a count and percentage of children who were at the expected level for a specific ELG or area of learning.

Number, percentage and annual (percentage point) change of children at expected level in 0 to 12 ELGs, of those contributing to a good level of development

This is a count, percentage and annual percentage point change of children who were at the expected level in a given number of early learning goals, ranging from 0 to 12, for those ELGs contributing to a good level of development. Specifically, those within the 5 areas of learning relating to: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; and mathematics.

Number, percentage and annual (percentage point) change of children at expected level in 0 to 17 ELGs

This is a count, percentage and annual (percentage point) change of children who were at the expected level in a given number of early learning goals, ranging from 0 to 17.

Number and percentage of children with these ELGs (contributing to a good level of development)

This is a count and percentage of children who were at the expected level in each combination of 0 to 12 ELGs, of those contributing to a good level of development (with the percentage denominator being children with the same number of early learning goals at the expected level). Specifically, those within the 5 areas of learning relating to: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; and mathematics.

Number and percentage of children at expected level in 0 ELGs, of those contributing to a good level of development

This is a count and percentage of children who were not at the expected level in any of the 12 ELGs contributing to a good level of development.

Number and percentage of children at expected level in 0 ELGs

This is a count and percentage of children who were not at the expected level in any of the 17 ELGs.

Child characteristics

Sex

The sex of the child is recorded as male or female in the school census or early years census (although the early years census also includes an ‘Unknown’ category). This is the sex of the person as recognised in law.

Ethnicity

The school census records the ethnicity as stated by the parent, guardian or pupil and the early years census records the ethnicity as stated by the parent or guardian.

The setting must not ascribe any ethnicity to the child. The information must come from the parent/guardian/pupil. Where the ethnicity had not yet been collected, ‘NOBT’ (information not yet obtained) was recorded. If a parent/guardian/pupil refused to provide ethnicity, ‘REFU’ (refused) was recorded. These categories combined are shown as ‘unknown’ within the underlying data sets.

Where a child’s ethnicity is not recorded (i.e. was ‘REFU’ or ‘NOBT’) in the school census, the ethnicity recorded in the early years census for that child is used instead. If a child’s ethnicity was not recorded in either the school census or the early years census, then that child’s ethnicity is shown as ‘unknown’.

First language

The school must not ascribe a specific language to the pupil. This information must come from the parent, guardian or pupil.

A pupil’s first language is other than English where the pupil has been exposed to a language other than English during early development and continues to be exposed to this language in the home or in the community.

The codes ENB (not known but believed to be English) and OTB (not known but believed to be other than English) should be used where the:

pupil’s first language is not known with absolute certainty
parents have not responded to enquiries
the school can judge with a high degree of confidence whether the pupil’s first language is English or not

Where a parent, guardian or pupil refused to provide this information, where the information was not obtained, where it was pending, or where it was not possible to make a judgement as to whether ENB or OTB should be used, the child’s first language is shown as ‘unknown’ within the underlying data sets.

First language is not collected in the early years census, so children who did not appear in the school census have their first language shown as ‘unknown’ within the underlying data sets.

Within the underlying data sets, the categories are presented as ‘English’ and ‘Other than English’. The ‘English’ category includes the ENB code (not known but believed to be English) and the ‘Other than English’ category includes the OTB code (not known but believed to be other than English).

Free school meals eligibility

Free school meal (FSM) eligibility is collected in the school census.

Pupils are free school meals eligible if they both:

meet the eligibility criteria
make a claim

Free school meals are available to pupils in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of, one or more of several qualifying benefits (opens in new tab).

Since September 2014 (opens in new tab), state funded schools in England have been required by law to provide free lunches to pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2, who are not otherwise entitled to benefits-related free school meals.

The FSM eligibility variable does not relate to children who actually received free school meals but those children who were eligible to receive free school meals through one or more of several qualifying benefits (opens in new tab).

Free school meals are only provided in state-funded schools, so FSM eligibility is collected in the school census but not in the early years census.

In publications before 2022/23, the category ‘Not known to be eligible for free school meals’ included both those not eligible for free school meals and those not known to be eligible for free school meals (i.e. children who did not appear in the school census). Since the 2022/23 release, as a methodological improvement, the categories have been split out and are now ‘Eligible for free school meals’, ‘Not eligible for free school meals’ and ‘Unknown’ (i.e. children who did not appear in the school census). Data for 2021/22 was revised to reflect this change.

Term of birth

Term of birth for each child has been classified as follows:
Autumn-born: September, October, November, or December
Spring-born: January, February, or March
Summer-born: April, May, June, July, or August

In publications before 2022/23, children born in April were classified as spring-born. Since the 2022/23 release, children born in April have been classified as summer-born to align with other departmental outputs. Data for 2021/22 was revised to reflect this change.

For the 2025/26 results, the standard dates of birth for the EYFS academic year ran from 1st September 2020 to 31st August 2021. Children born outside of the standard reported academic year have been classified as autumn-born or summer born; specifically, a child born on 31st August 2020 or before will be classified as autumn-born and a child born on 1st September 2021 or after will be classified as summer-born.

Special educational needs (SEN)

Children with SEN are classified as follows:

SEN support
SEN support means support that is additional to, or different from, the support generally made for other children of the same age in a school. It is provided for pupils who are identified as having a learning difficulty or a disability that requires extra or different help to that normally provided as part of the school’s usual curriculum offer. A pupil receiving SEN support will not have an education, health and care plan.
Education, health and care (EHC) plans
A local authority may issue an EHC plan for a pupil who needs more support than is available through SEN support. This will follow a statutory assessment process whereby the local authority considers the pupil’s special educational needs and any relevant health and social care needs; sets out long term outcomes; and specifies provision which will deliver additional support to meet those needs.

The type of SEN provision a child receives is collected on both the school and early years censuses.

SEN primary need

A child with SEN’s primary need is the child’s most significant special educational need. This is collected through the school census, but not the early years census.

Information on the primary special educational need does not indicate the prevalence of a medical condition or diagnosis within the population. For example, it is possible that an individual may have autistic spectrum disorder but their primary special educational need is recorded as speech, language and communication needs.

For the 2025/26 release, down syndrome was added as a primary need for 2024/25 and 2025/26 in data sets 1 and 2, further to it being collected for the first time in 2024/25. Therefore, it is likely that some children recorded with a primary need of down syndrome in 2024/25 and 2025/26 would have been recorded as having a different primary need in earlier years.

Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) decile

The Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) measures the proportion of all children aged 0 to 15 living in income deprived families and is based on the child’s residence. IDACI is a supplementary index of the English indices of deprivation (opens in new tab).

The statistics (specifically data set 4 2025/26) for 2021/22 to 2025/26 are based on the 2025 version of IDACI.

Statistics based on the 2019 version of IDACI for 2021/22 to 2023/24 can be found in the 2023/24 statistics (data set 4 2023/24).

Each lower-layer super output area (LSOA), or neighbourhood, is given a score showing the percentage of all children aged 0 to 15 living in income deprived families. These neighbourhoods are grouped into deciles so that the 10% of neighbourhoods with the highest scores (that is, with the most deprived children) make up decile 1, and the 10% of neighbourhoods with the lowest scores (that is, with the fewest deprived children) make up decile 10.

Geography

Breakdowns by local authority district in data sets 1 and 2 are based on:

identifying the postcode of the school or provider using data from get information about schools (opens in new tab), as at the date of the spring school census for the relevant academic year e.g. 21th May 2026 for 2025/26.
matching the postcode in 1) to the relevant extract of the National Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL) (opens in new tab) to identify the associated local authority district.

for 2021/22 to 2023/24, the February extract was used.
for 2024/25 and 2025/26, the August extract was used.

A small number of schools and providers could not be matched to a local authority district; the assessment outcomes of the children attending these settings are shown under 'Outside of England and unknown'. This equated to 0.1% of all children in 2025/26 and this proportion has remained relatively stable since the EYFS reforms were introduced in 2021/22.

In the 2025/26 release, the data for 2024/25 was revised in both data sets 1 and 2 to use the August extract of the NSPL (was initially based on the February extract). This ensured all data for 2024/25 was based on the same NSPL extract. As a result, 30 children moved from ‘Outside of England and Unknown’ into the Warwickshire local authority district. Figures at national, regional, and local authority level were unchanged.

Breakdowns by local authority district and IDACI decile in data set 4 are based on:

matching the child’s home postcode to the relevant extract of the NSPL to identify the associated local authority district and lower super output area (LSOA)
- for 2021/22 to 2023/24, the February extract was used.
- for 2024/25 and 2025/26, the August extract was used.
matching the LSOA identified in 1) to the English indices of deprivation.

A small number of children could not be matched to a local authority district; the assessment outcomes of these children are shown under 'Outside England and unknown'. This equated to 0.2% of all children across all years since the EYFS reforms were introduced in 2021/22.

Rounding and suppression

Percentages and averages are unrounded in the underlying data sets. However, percentages are presented to one decimal place and averages are presented to two decimal places when using the table tool in Explore education statistics.

Suppression has not been applied to the underlying data sets.

Symbols

The following symbols are used in the underlying data sets as follows:

z not applicable

x data not available

u low reliability

b break in time series

Where any number is shown as zero, the original figure submitted was zero.

Data quality

These statistics include results for only those children who were registered for government-funded early years provision at the end of the EYFS. Children who were not registered for government-funded early years provision at the end of the EYFS are not in the scope of the Department’s EYFS profile data collection and therefore are not included in the results.

The results cover government-funded children who were assessed at the end of the academic year. Children in state-funded schools who are continuing in EYFSP beyond age 5 are included in the year in which they were assessed. Therefore, a small number of children in the statistics are older than the usual expected age of the cohort; in 2025/26 this applied to 4,722 children or 0.8% of the cohort, the same percentage as previous years. There is also a very small number of children in the statistics younger than the usual expected age of the cohort who started reception early; in 2025/26 this applied to 27 children or 0.005% of the cohort, a similar proportion to earlier years.

In 2025/26, returns were received from 17,607 out of 17,610 or 99.98% of expected schools and early years providers, compared with 99.93% in 2024/25, and 99.74% in 2021/22. There were 3 settings with data still outstanding at the end of the data collection, down from 12 in 2024/25 and from 47 in 2021/22; these were schools or early years providers who did not submit data or did not confirm that they no longer had eligible children (if applicable) despite the local authority’s best efforts to make contact.

Ordinarily the EYFS profile must be completed in the final term of the academic year in which the child reaches the age of five unless an exemption has been granted (see section ‘The assessment scales and exemptions’ above).

The following records are excluded from the statistics:

children with an ‘A’ (exemption) recorded against any area or goal in their EYFS profile
children of parents in the armed forces in overseas schools
shielded children e.g. due to witness protection
duplicate records

578,157 records were returned in the 2025/26 EYFS profile data collection. A total of 0.2% or 1,432 records were excluded from the statistics for one or more of the above reasons, down from 0.3% in 2024/25, and from 0.8% in 2021/22.

In 2025/26, 1,105 or 0.2% of children were excluded from the statistics due to an exemption, the same proportion as 2024/25, and down from 0.7% in 2021/22.

The guidance on exemptions (opens in new tab) was updated in the 2022/23 academic year as part of continued efforts to discourage the use of the EYFS Profile as an accountability measure. Previously, exemptions could also be granted for children who had not spent a long time in a setting, for example due to illness, or not starting at a setting until a substantial part of the academic year had gone by.

This will have resulted in the outcomes measures across the child cohort as a whole (whether at national or sub-national level) being slightly higher in 2021/22 than they might otherwise have been due to having a higher proportion of children exempted. In addition, some cohorts, for example those with special educational needs (SEN), will have been particularly impacted by exemptions; 2.9% of children with SEN were exempted in 2021/22, almost double the next highest proportion in subsequent years of 1.5% in both 2022/23 and 2023/24. However, the precise impact of this on outcomes is hard to determine. Nonetheless, the higher proportion of children exempted in 2021/22 should be considered when comparing data for that year with data for later years.

The matching of pupil records across DfE data improves over time as more datasets become available. Therefore, there may be a small degree of undermatching or overmatching when the matching was initially undertaken and this should be considered when interpreting the statistics. An under match is when two or more records that relate to the same individual are not correctly matched together, resulting in an individual being represented by multiple separate records. An overmatch is when a record is incorrectly matched to an individual, resulting in information from different individuals being combined under the same individual.

In 2025/26, the proportion of children categorised as unknown for SEN provision, ethnicity, first language, and FSM have all decreased since 2024/25, and since 2021/22, indicating improvements in the provision of this information.

Data quality issues for specific local authorities and years

2021/22

Data was missing for two-thirds of children (or 10 children) in the Isles of Scilly in 2021/22; this could not be resolved before the data collection closed. Caution should be taken when interpreting the results for this local authority in this year.

Once the 2021/22 data collection closed, City of London local authority made the Department aware that almost one-quarter of children in the local authority had not been uploaded and were missing from the return. Caution should be taken when interpreting the results for this local authority in this year.

Sutton local authority uploaded data for a small number of children in the local authority (<1%) that included invalid assessment outcomes. These invalid values were accepted by the system due to an error with a new validation rule, which has since been fixed. However, as children must have valid assessment outcomes against all early learning goals to be included in the publication, these children were excluded from the published data. Therefore, a degree of caution should be taken when interpreting the results for this local authority in this year.

2022/23

Once the 2022/23 data collection closed, Merton local authority made the Department aware that the assessment outcomes for a significant number of children in the local authority were recorded under the incorrect early learning goal (ELG). This affected the assessment outcomes for the areas of learning relating to personal, social and emotional development (the self-regulation, managing self, and building relationships ELGs) and physical development (the gross motor skills and fine motor skills ELGs). Therefore, Merton’s results for the listed ELGs and areas of learning have been suppressed (i.e. replaced with ‘u’ which indicates low reliability) and removed from national and regional totals in data set 2. All other measures and data sets remain unaffected.

Southend local authority uploaded data for a small number of children in the local authority (<1%) that included incorrect assessment outcomes. Therefore, a degree of caution should be taken when interpreting the results for this local authority in this year.

Brighton and Hove uploaded data which excluded 5 children (<0.3%). Therefore, a degree of caution should be taken when interpreting the results for this local authority in this year.

Gloucestershire uploaded data which had 1 child’s data missing for the ELG People, culture and communities (<0.1%).

2024/25

One school in Hackney was impacted by a system error that led to incorrect outcomes being recorded for 13 out of 28 children. The entire cohort for that school was removed from published statistics (around 1% of children in Hackney). Therefore, a degree of caution should be taken when interpreting the results for this local authority in this year.

Northumberland uploaded data with one incorrect assessment outcome for one child in the ELG Listening, attention and understanding (<0.1%).

Following the 2024/25 release, 7 schools made the Department aware of errors affecting more than around 50% of the records in each of their submissions. The impact on national and regional results was assessed to be negligible; therefore, the 2024/25 data for these schools has not been removed from the 2025/26 release. A further 11 schools reported errors affecting less than 50% of their submitted records.

2025/26

Following data investigations undertaken by the Department after the data collection had closed, it was ascertained that:

one school in Central Bedfordshire had incorrect assessment outcomes reported for all 23 of its children. The entire cohort for that school was removed from the published statistics (around 0.6% of children in Central Bedfordshire). Therefore, a degree of caution should be taken when interpreting the results for this local authority in this year.
one school in Nottingham had incorrect assessment outcomes reported for all 29 of its children. The entire cohort for that school was removed from the published statistics (around 0.9% of children in Nottingham). Therefore, a degree of caution should be taken when interpreting the results for this local authority in this year.

Help and support

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Early years foundation stage profile results statistics and data:

Early Years Statistics Team

Email: earlyyears.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Jay Morris

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Phone: 0370 000 2288

Opening times:
Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm (closed on bank holidays)