Government Response to the Committee's Ninth Report of Session 2017–19: Tackling disadvantage in the early years

This is the government's response, published 5 April 2019.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government sets out a broadly supportive position on early years and home learning, but in several areas, including nursery funding beyond 2019/20, the 30 hours policy and children's centres, it points to existing action, the next spending review or local decision-making.

• On maintained nursery schools, it announced a further £24m of supplementary funding to enable local authorities to fully fund them for the whole of the 2019/20 academic year; longer term funding "will be resolved during the next spending review".
• On the 30 hours policy, it does not commit to a review or to reducing the earnings cap, stating that it "firmly believes that work is the best route out of poverty" and that the policy has a part to play in improving social mobility.
• On children's centres, it says "it is not the role of central government to promote one specific way of delivering services" and that local authorities should decide the model; it will commission the Early Intervention Foundation to identify tools and support for local areas.
• On research into home learning environments, it is investing over £4 million with the Education Endowment Foundation to trial four programmes, with reporting expected in 2021/22 and results to be published.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error