National Children's Bureau welcomes EYFS proposals

8 July 2011

Leading children's charity the National Children's Bureau (NCB), welcomes the government's proposed changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which have been released for consultation this week.

In particular, NCB looks forward to seeing the EYFS re-focused into three prime areas of learning: personal, social and emotional development; physical development; and communication and language and believes that this simplification and emphasis on the basic building blocks of learning will make the EYFS more accessible for early years practitioners and for parents.

Similarly, NCB welcomes clearer guidance around the paperwork that EYFS providers must submit about the children in their care. Notably, that ongoing assessments should avoid 'excessive paperwork'.

Sue Owen, director of practice improvement at NCB, said: 'During the consultation on the EYFS framework it became clear that most people who work with young children like the framework and believe that it has improved their work. Complaints about it clearly related to some specific features such as the large number of learning goals and the amount of paperwork required by some regulators. These issues have been dealt with and this final consultation offers us a chance to take a look at the new proposals and consider how they will work for children.'

NCB will be contributing to the major consultation response from the Early Childhood Forum, the national coalition of 60 early years organisations which is based at NCB.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

For further details contact the NCB Media Office: media@ncb.org.uk or 020 7843 6045/7

1. For more information on the consultation visit: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm

2. The National Children's Bureau's (NCB) mission is to advance the well-being of all children and young people across every aspect of their lives. As the leading national charity which supports children, young people and families, and those who work with them, across England and Northern Ireland, we focus on identifying and communicating high impact, community and family-centred solutions. We work with organisations from across the voluntary, statutory and private sectors through our membership scheme and through the sector-led specialist networks and partnership programmes that operate under our charitable status. www.ncb.org.uk  

3. The Early Childhood Forum (ECF) is a voluntary organisation hosted by NCB. It is a coalition of 60 professional associations, voluntary organisations and interest groups united in their concern for the well-being, learning and development of young children from birth to eight and their families. It's vision is to bring together partners in the early childhood sector to promote inclusion and challenge inequalities and to champion quality experiences. For more information please contact the ECF Coordinator Heather Ransom, ecf@ncb.org.uk