Introduction
Children's early years are crucial to their long term development. As the Early
Years Foundation Stage states: "A child's experience in the early years has a
major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is
important in its own right, and it provides the foundation for children to make
the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.”
C4EO's work on Early Years supports Directors of Children's Services and their
Children's Trust partners by providing the knowledge, data and tailored support
they may need to help improve outcomes for very young children and their
families.
Early Years was C4EO's first theme and covered the following priority areas:
- Narrowing the gap in outcomes for young children through effective practices in
the early years
- Improving children's attainment through a better quality of family-based support
for early learning
- Improving development outcomes for children through effective practice in
integrating early years' services.
Support on Early Years
Information from the resources on Early Years is being shared with Children's
Trusts and Local Authorities through a series of regional knowledge workshops.
In addition, C4EO sector specialists provide tailored support to Local
Authorities and Children's Trusts who request it.
The type of support will be tailored to specific needs but may include:
assistance with developing local improvement plans; help to use evidence-based
audit tools or the development of a local progress map to assess policy,
performance and practice. For further information see
Tailored support.
Theme Advisory Groups (TAGs)
The work on this theme is shaped and guided by a Theme Advisory Group.
Click here for more information about theme advisory groups and the
membership for this theme.
More information
For more information about this theme contact
Sue Owen or read our Priority work themes document (43kb PDF file, 13 pages).
You can also sign up for regular email updates.
Publications
C4EO is publishing and will regularly update a range of resources on Early
Years. For a more detailed description of each type of resource, see
Our services .
Directors' summaries
The Early Years Directors' summary is a concise and accessible overview of
C4EO’s current work in this theme for directors of children’s services.
The following resources are now available on Early Years:
Narrowing the gap in outcomes for young children through effective practices in
the early years.
Improving children's attainment through a better quality of family-based
support for early learning.
Improving development outcomes for children through effective practice in
integrating early years' services.
An interim progress map summary has been produced, based on a review of the
literature, and this will be used to initiate discussion with local authorities
and children's trust partners on research and practice evidence of what works in
integrating services.
Presentations
Early Years conference presentations
Workshop presentations
Government Office Region presentations
Events
Please check again later for more events...
About local practice examples
As with all C4EO themes, C4EO recognises that not all useful knowledge about ‘what
works’ and why, is to be found in research reports and papers. We are therefore
keen to hear about practice that is leading to significantly improved outcomes for
children, young people and their families.
We will incorporate validated local practice examples into our full reviews on what
works, which will be shared with other decision-makers in the children’s services
field. We will also include them as a special body of evidence on this website.
To be validated, practice examples need to be supported by some evidence which shows
the outcomes and changes that have been achieved.
Submitting effective local practice
If you would like to submit an example of effective local practice, please:
- Signup to the C4EO website if you haven't already
- login and complete the local practice online
submission form.
Alternatively you can:
- Download a copy of the local practice submission form (77Kb Word
file, 6 pages)
- Send your completed form to C4EOTeam@NFER.ac.uk.
Further information
If you have any queries regarding validated local practice, please do not hesitate
to contact Monica Hetherington at NFER via
C4EOTeam@nfer.ac.uk
Interactive data
To view the interactive data, you will need to have Adobe Flash Player 9
or higher installed.
Due to the high volume of data in the interactive maps, very occasionally the map
may appear not to load correctly. If this does happen please attempt to reload the page by
hitting your browser refresh button.
Explore, customise and print C4EO maps and reports with:
Maps
Data views - View interactive maps and graphs that
allow you to select the data you are interested in.
Advanced data views - Select the data and
comparators you are interested in before viewing in the format of your choice (e.g.
charts, interactive maps, XML etc).
Area profiles
Area profiles - View a predefined report on your Government
Office Region, Local Authority and Statistical Neighbours (PDF 102Kb, 9 pages).
Advanced area profiles - Select the data and
comparators to create your own customised profile.
We currently have data at National, Regional and Local Authority level. We are loading
information at Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) as it becomes available. At the moment
IDACI 2007, NI 152, NI 116 and other
indices of deprivation are available at LSOA level (accessible by double-clicking the chosen
local authority in the Child Poverty maps).
We are keen to maintain the usefulness of the data views and reports. If you have
any thoughts on how to make the reports more useful, or would like to tell us what
you plan on using the data for please complete the 'feedback
form'.
More information on how to use the interactive data and what the indicators mean
can be found in the help section.
