Questions from the Department for Education:
Best start in life - access and participate in good quality learning
What are the most effective system-level levers for replicating high-quality and long-lasting early years education across diverse settings (including schools, childminders, and communities)? How much do these levers act universally, and how much do they need adapting and/or targeting to support different groups of children (e.g. SEND, FSM) to achieve a Good Level of Development (GLD)?
Department for Education, 2025
Best start in life - improving development of disadvantaged children
How can we best develop tools to assess development before school-age, so we can measure important changes in educational outcomes over time and understand the relative impact of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and home learning environment?
Department for Education, 2025
Best start in life - improving development of disadvantaged children
Which early childhood services, or combinations of services, are most effective in improving the (health, cognitive, socio-emotional, and educational) development of disadvantaged children before age 5? How does this vary by children’s age (for example 0-2 and 3-5) and for different domains of learning (such as literacy and maths)?
Department for Education, 2025
Best start in life - home
How well-used are available family services (such as family hubs and children’s centres services) and how representative are these users? How can we make these services more attractive and easier to access for those parents and carers whose children stand to benefit the most?
Department for Education, 2025
Best start in life - home
How can education and other services best support parents and carers to help their children learn outside formal education settings (including in other locations beyond the home when the home learning environment is not conducive to learning)?
Department for Education, 2025