About the Early Years Professional Development Programme

The Early Years Professional Development Programme is funded by the Department for Education (including funding available for practitioners’ time to take part). Pre-reception practitioners from schools and private, voluntary and independent settings (PVI), as well as childminders are eligible, with priority given to applications from Settings that meet certain criteria.

What is the training programme’s purpose? 

The programme will offer specific in-depth training for up to 10,000 early years professionals from all participating Local Authorities in England over a 2 year period. There will be staggered start dates across the 2023\25 period with a total of four cohorts, the next of which is due to start in January 2024. The EYPDP offers a comprehensive package of professional development that is based on current early years pedagogy. It will help to build upon practitioners’ skills and knowledge to improve the quality of adult-child interactions.

The programme provides support for practitioners to:

• Improve skills to identify children at risk of speech, language and communication needs
• Provide an understanding of the theory of child development in early mathematics
• Develop skills to support children’s self-confidence, relationships, and self-awareness through expertly developed Personal, Social and Emotional Development training 
• Improve engagement with parents and carers to support the home learning environment

What does the programme entail?

The programme consists of online self-study eLearning and regular facilitated webinars in which practitioners will meet with their tutor and other early years professionals on a weekly basis. In total, the programme is expected to take 8 months and 60 hours to complete.

There will be a total of 4 cohorts of learners, with staggered start dates across the 2023/2025 period. The training will be broken down into three modules with content developed by industry experts in Communication and Language, Early Mathematics and Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED).

Course content

What do practitioners gain from completing the programme?

• A comprehensive package of professional development that is based on current early years pedagogy to support them as they continually improve their practice.  
• An opportunity to build upon practitioners’ skills and knowledge with peers and expert trainers, to improve the quality of adult-child interactions.
• Support to engage with parents and carers to support the home learning environment.  
• The skills to identify children at risk of speech, language and communication needs.  
• An understanding of the theory of child development in Early Mathematics, developed by subject experts, and how to support children’s early mathematical learning in everyday practice.  
• The skills to support children’s self-confidence and self-awareness, managing feelings and behaviours, and making relationships through expertly developed Personal, Social and Emotional Development training.
• An opportunity to meet with other practitioners from different settings and offer peer support.
• Practitioners will receive an OCN London-endorsed CPD certificate on the completion of the programme, which recognises key competencies achieved by participating in the programme. 

How and where is the programme delivered?

If the Early Years Practitioner is successful in their application to be a part of the programme, they will be given their own personal login details to the online learning platform where they will be able to access learning materials and sign up for group webinars.

Eligibility criteria

The Early Years Professional Development Programme is available to all eligible settings from participating Local Authorities across England.

Eligible settings offer childcare to children between 2 and 4 years of age with priority given to applications from settings that ideally meet at least two of the following criteria:

• Provide to at least one child with an Education, Health and Care Plan or Disability Access Fund indicator 
• Provide to at least one child in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) 
• Provide to at least one child taking up the disadvantaged two-year-old offer
• EY providers which do not meet the above criteria but where local intelligence suggests disadvantaged children would benefit from their practitioners receiving additional CPD support, may also be eligible.

Additionally, participating practitioners must:

• Be qualified to at least level 3
• Be currently working with 2-4 year olds (e.g. a manager who does not spend any time with the children is not eligible)
• Not have completed a previous iteration of the Early Years Professional Development Programme delivered by Education Development Trust

Please note that based on the DfE’s eligibility criteria, each Local Authority region has a specific number of training places available. Once these places have been filled, remaining places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

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