Latest EYFS results: disadvantage gap widens

The ‘disadvantage gap’ is widening for reception pupils, reversing recent progress, according to new data from the Department for Education (DfE).

Overall, results from the early years foundation stage (EYFS) profile for 2023/24 show that 67.7 per cent of children achieved a ‘good level of development’ – meaning that they were at the expected level across 12 of the early learning goals last year. That was an increase from 67.2 per cent in 2022/23 and 65.2 per cent in 2021/22. (Comparable data is only available from 2021-22, following changes made to the EYFS.) The DfE says the overall improvement may be attributable to a gradual recovery from disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as practitioners having greater familiarisation with the new assessment framework introduced in September 2021.

However, the ‘disadvantage gap’ – the gap between the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) achieving a ‘good level of development’ and their better off peers – increased to 20.5 percentage points, up from 19.9 percentage points the previous year. This was a reverse of the trend seen from 2021/22, when the gap stood at 20.4 percentage points. The proportion of FSM eligible pupils reaching the ‘good level of development’ benchmark also fell in absolute terms, to 51.5 per cent from 51.6 per cent  the year before.

Commenting on this aspect of the latest data, Dr Kerris Cooper, senior researcher of early years and inequalities at the Education Policy Institute, said the figures were ‘worrying yet, sadly, unsurprising’. She added: ‘It is critical that the new government addresses the root causes of poverty through an ambitious child poverty strategy which includes a focus on the youngest children, and by abolishing the “two child limit” and benefits cap which directly place families in poverty’.

Elsewhere in the data, the gap between girls and boys widened for the second year in a row – 75 per cent of girls achieved a ‘good level of development’ compared to 60.7 per cent of boys.  For children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), in 2023/24 the percentage of children that had a ‘good level of development’ increased for those receiving SEND support, from 24.3 to 24.9 per cent. For those with an education, health and care plan (EHCP), the proportion remained stable at 3.8 per cent. However, this meant that overall the percentage of all children with SEND who reached the ‘good level of development’ benchmark fell slightly, due to a  larger proportion of children with SEND having an EHCP compared to a year earlier.

Regionally, the South East was the region with the third highest proportion of children achieving a ‘good level of development’ with 69.8 per cent. The top performing region was Inner London with 70.2 per cent, followed by Outer London on 69.9 per cent. The North West was the region with the lowest proportion at 64.4 per cent. All regions saw at least a slight increase in the proportion of pupils reaching a ‘good level of development', with the exception of Yorkshire and The Humber, which stayed the same on 66.1 per cent.

Full data: https://tinyurl.com/bdfuyte2