Spending more on early years provision will tackle the issue of primary-age pupils not being school-ready “more effectively than catch-up funding spent in the school years”, a former education minister has said.
Robin Walker, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, made the comment today in a parliamentary debate on Department for Education spending on childcare and early years.
The committee is currently undertaking a cross-party inquiry into childcare and early years education.
The former schools minister told the House of Commons that he often “heard the concerns of primary schools about the challenges of children arriving in schools less school-ready than they had been previously, and the greater range of measures and extra support they needed”.
Mr Walker added: “Having children stimulated by excellent early years provision would address this challenge far more effectively and in a more timely manner than interventions on catch-up funding spent in the school years.”
And he also said that the Treasury needed to “understand” that in order to reduce local authority spending, “investment in the early years and in the professions that can support and identify and meet [special] needs in the early years” was needed.
Investment in the early years ‘a big win’
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Walker said that investment in the early years and childcare “should be a win to the power of four”.
“There can be few sectors of the economy in which there is such an obvious and compelling payback,” he added.
“In the noble quest of ensuring more children leave primary school able to read, write and do maths, investment in the early years, when they learn basic communication, their letters and their numbers, should be a no-brainer.”
Earlier this year, a report claimed that nearly half of children starting school were unable to eat independently, use the toilet or communicate clearly.
In a survey of primary school teachers for the report, respondents said that an average of only 54 per cent of pupils in their Reception classes were developmentally ready for school when they began.
Teachers said they believed lack of school-readiness was a “growing” problem.
