Terrific Twos - Informed Families

Описание: Enfield Council fully supports the Coalition government's scheme to offer free early education for 260,000 two-year-olds by 2014-15.
As well as helping working parents, the move is part of a wider government strategy of "early intervention". Research such as the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) has shown that children from a deprived background tend to have poorer language skills when they start school, while children who have access to good early education are more likely to begin school able to learn.

Research by The Centre 4 Excellence (C4EO) into trials to expand free early years education for disadvantaged two-year-olds in 18 Local Authorities has shown that parents need support to access the free entitlement. The importance of this support is highlighted by the Daycare Trust, which notes the "strategic importance in providing parents with the information needed to access free early education places, including outreach to parents who may be eligible for new two year old places." Childcare Costs survey 2012, p. 16.

In response to these findings, our Quality Matters in Practice project commissioned 'Terrific Twos' - a film highlighting the views of parents of two year olds who worked with us on this project, who said that their children loved going to a nursery or pre-school providing a quality educational environment. Parents were also keen to support their child's development by continuing their learning at home.

Enfield Council has now formed a steering group as the strategic arm for the local delivery of the two year old offer. The steering group is working with providers and partners on ground to improve the accessibility and quality of two year old places. We hope that parents will be directly involved in the steering group as well. The group plans to hold a series of workshops with nurseries and pre-schools over the summer, to explore how we can work together to improve children's early years in Enfield.

For more information on Terrific Twos and Enfield's plans to expand free early education for two-year-olds, please contact Informed Families (Enfield's Family Information Service) IF by emailing [email protected] or calling our freephone Helpline on 0800 694 1066.

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