The Department for Education (DfE) has set out its official response to Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) consultation, which ran over the summer.  

As you are aware, DfE consulted on a number of proposals intended to offer early years providers increased flexibility and make the EYFS framework easier to navigate and implement. The proposals were informed by extensive engagement with the sector. The majority of the proposed regulatory changes included in the final consultation were suggested by early years providers to make it easier for their settings to utilise their workforce, helping to increase capacity ahead of the rollout of the new entitlements’ in April 2024.   

We want to support providers to operate successfully and ensure practitioners can focus on providing children in their care with a high-quality early education and have opportunities to progress their careers. That is why, carefully considering all the responses, Ministers have decided to implement a number of changes to the EYFS framework. Our intention is to implement the majority of the changes from January 2024, subject to parliamentary procedure. This includes no longer requiring the requirement for level 3 practitioners to hold a level 2 maths qualification and creating provider specific versions of the EYFS.  

Ministers have decided not to take forward the following proposals; 

• Reducing the percentage of level 2 qualified staff required per ratio from ‘at least half’ to 30% or 40% of all other staff (group and school-based providers only). 
• Changing the qualification requirements outside of peak hours (group and school-based providers only). 

• Access the consultation document

• Early Years foundation stage (EYFS) 2021reforms: evaluation report