Sarah Teather, Minister for Children and Families, has today launched a consultation, Extending Free Early Education to More Two-year-olds, calling for views on the second phase of the roll out of free early education to around 40 per cent of two-year-old children from September 2014 – some 300,000 children.   Two-year-olds from families who [...]

In response to the sector continuing to highlight the difficulties linked to information sharing the Department for Education and Department for Health Ministers (Sarah Teather and Anne Milton respectively) have asked for an “ information task and finish” group to be established. This group is made up of representatives from early years and health and [...]

National Loan Guarantee Scheme The Government has announced a £20bn National Loan Guarantee Scheme for small and medium-sized businesses. Under the programme, firms with an annual turnover of less than £50m will be able to receive a discount of one percentage point compared to the interest rate that they would otherwise have received from that [...]

Last year the Government published Families in the Foundation Years, a short statement (by Government standards at least!) setting out a big vision for services we think should be offered to all parents and families from pregnancy until a child reaches the age of five. It could not have been developed without the sector’s involvement. [...]

Sarah Teather, Minister of State for Children and Families, announced in October a universal parenting class trial for mothers and fathers of children 0-5 in three local areas: Middlesbrough, the London Borough of Camden and High Peak in Derbyshire.   The aim of the trial is to stimulate a market in universal parenting classes by [...]