Experienced practitioners vital for educating youngest children
Source: gov.uk (2025-04-30)

Delivering high-quality care and education for babies and toddlers takes skill and expertise, meaning experience and qualifications among early years workers matter when it comes to the youngest children’s development, new research by Ofsted shows.

Ofsted’s report, published today, looks at how early years practitioners care for and educate babies and toddlers up until they are 2 years old. The aim of the report is to help early years leaders and staff refine their approach to supporting the youngest children.

Read the full report: Getting it right from the start: how early years practitioners work with babies and toddlers (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/getting-it-right-from-the-start-how-early-years-practitioners-work-with-babies-and-toddlers)

The report highlights the importance of practitioner experience and qualifications, finding that those with greater experience and a higher level of qualifications had better knowledge of child development.

The research also considered to what extent practitioners use the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2) when educating and caring for toddlers and babies. It found that the ‘key person’ role is a strength of many providers, with early years practitioners recognising that this role is vital for babies and toddlers.

Ofsted also found:

most practitioners recognise the importance of positive relationships with parents in helping them support children more effectively

communication and language, and personal, social and emotional development were well understood by practitioners, but they did not always understand how they could support physical development as well

there is some work to do in understanding how routine times can be used for high-quality interactions, particularly where mixed ages are grouped together

some survey responses reflected a misconception that babies and toddlers are too young to be taught anything

some of the challenges considered in the research may be partly influenced by ongoing difficulties in recruiting and retaining experienced practitioners

The report sets out a series of recommendations for practitioners, managers and policy-makers to achieve the best possible outcomes for babies and toddlers. Foremost is support for practitioners to take part in professional development specific to babies and toddlers to improve their qualifications and experience.

Jayne Coward, Ofsted’s Deputy Director of Early Years Regulatory Policy and Practice, said:

We know that a child’s first few years are crucial to their future learning and development. By providing children with an excellent start in those first two years, we can ensure that they gain the foundation they need to thrive throughout school and beyond.

With the government’s childcare reforms, we can expect to see an increase in the number of babies and toddlers accessing early education. It’s vital we get it right for all of these children from the very start. I hope that this report helps early years practitioners to continue reflecting on and refining their approach to supporting our very youngest children.

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Notes to editors
- The report draws on a series of visits to early years settings, a survey, inspector focus groups and a literature review.
- Ofsted will be considering these findings when developing inspector training.