Welcome
The Early Childhood Forum (ECF), brings together national organisations and professional associations in the early childhood sector for all young children from birth to seven. ECF exists to promote inclusion, challenge inequalities, debate issues, celebrate differences and develop consensus to champion high quality experiences for young children and their families.
News & Events
EYFS Consultation
Launch of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Consultation is now live on Citizen Space
The Department for Education has launched a consultation on the EYFS to offer providers increased flexibility and alleviate known burdens, exploring giving providers more choice over how they operate and making it easier for them to deliver the EYFS. It is their intention that these changes will support settings to deliver the new entitlements announced at the Spring Budget.
They hope to hear from many people and organisations before the deadline on 26 July, so they can gather a broad range of views to help them reach well-informed decisions. The Department for Education and Foundation Years are also planning some engagement events for stakeholders, so please look out for this.
To note, this consultation builds on the measures consulted on in Summer 2022. The changes to 2 year old staff to child ratios and supervision whilst eating are due to come into force in September 2023, subject to parliamentary procedure.
Survey available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/early-years-foundation-stage/early-years-foundation-stage-regulatory-changes/
NEXT GENERAL MEETING of ECF, 15 June at 11:00
A further general meeting is confirmed for 15th June with Sandra Mathers of Oxford University who will be speaking on research concerning young children and their use of screen time. Start time is 11:00 a.m. Joining have been sent. The following is from the Oxford Department of Education website https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/people/sandra-mathers/
"Sandra is part of the Child Development and Learning research group. Her main research interests are the quality of early education and its effects on child development, early language development and professional development. She began her career as a primary school teacher, and her work remains strongly practice and policy-focused. In addition to her research, Sandra is a Trustee of the charity Early Education and a regular adviser to local and national policy-makers. For example, she recently served as a member of the Department for Education Expert Panel on early years language, literacy and communication apps (2019) and on the proposed revisions to the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (2017-18).
She will talk about her part of this research project : Learning for Families Through Technology (LiFT). https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/research/lift-learning-for-families-through-technology/ The focus of the work she is doing is about trying to get parents to join in their children's digital play so that any screen time is meaningful and promotes interaction.
Membership Fees
New Members
To apply for membership, please go to the About ECF section for the application form.
Corporate Membership is £60 per year and Individual Membership £20 per year.
Education Select Committee
The Education Select Committee have run three sessions listening to evidence from different organisations on early years childcare and support - on the 31st January, 21st February and 21st March - all interesting and recorded.
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7164/
