Responding to the Department for Education’s update on delivering its school readiness target, Nick Harrison, Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust, said:

‘It’s good to see further details around the process and oversight for delivering the government’s school readiness target. Increasing the proportion of young children meeting early learning goals from 68% to 75% is the right ambition.

‘However, this remains a very challenging milestone to achieve for all young children. Just 51.5% of those from disadvantaged backgrounds are ‘school ready’ by age 5, so they’re already falling behind their better off peers. The government must find the resources to end this travesty by equalising access to early education, and investing in the early years workforce to raise the quality of provision, particularly in the most deprived areas.’

Notes to editors:

  • The percentage of children with a good level of development (“school ready”) at age 5 was 67.7% in 2023/24, up slightly from 67.2% in 2022/23, but substantially below the pre-pandemic figure of 71.8% in 2018/19.
  • However, for children eligible for Free School Meals, the figure is just 51.5%, down slightly from 51.6% the previous year.
  • The gap between children eligible for FSM and their peers is 20.5 percentage points, which has widened since 2017, when it was just 17 percentage points.

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