Summary
Our evaluation of the Government’s pilot to provide free early-years education to disadvantaged 2-year olds found that:
Overall the pilot did not significantly improve a child’s development
There was no significant improvement in children's development. This might be because most children went to a pilot scheme that was rated ‘adequate’ (77 per cent). Only one-fifth of pilot schemes were rated ‘good’ (21 per cent).
When a child did go to a relatively high-quality early-education scheme there was a notable improvement in their language ability. We also found that a child’s relationship with their parents improved as a result of attending a relatively high-quality scheme.
The pilot was reasonably well targeted at children it aimed to help
Our evaluation showed that the pilot was reasonably well targeted, since the children who took up places on the pilot were more 'disadvantaged' than the general population of 2-year olds in almost all respects.
However, 8% of families in the pilot didn’t seem to be disadvantaged in any way. This suggests that there may be scope for improving the targeting of the pilot.
Parents were largely positive about their experiences of the pilot
Generally speaking, parents had a positive experience of the nurseries, play groups and childminders who offered the pilot. Only a minority of parents reported any worries or difficulties.
Most parents felt they had received good support and help from the practitioners running the pilot settings. They also reported feeling happy with the feedback they received about their child’s development.
On the whole, families taking part in the pilot were satisfied with the number of hours (typically 7.5) their child spent at an early education setting.
A substantial proportion (40%) would have liked their child to attend for more hours, but could not afford to pay for them.