Contract win for EDT to deliver the next phase of specialist professional development for early years practitioners in England
Following the successful delivery of the Early Years Professional Development Programme over the past three years, we are delighted to have been successful in our bid to deliver the Department for Education’s third phase of this programme.
Evidence tells us that the quality of early childhood education has a significant impact on children’s outcomes. The aim of the programme is to provide early years practitioners with high-quality professional development to provide them with the knowledge, skills and resources to support the development of the children they work with and ensure that all children – now and in the future – have the best possible start in life.
Training for practitioners will start in February 2023 and is set to run until 2025 with staggered start dates over four cohorts. Together with our delivery partners we will be delivering evidence-led, high-quality training to up to 10,000 early years practitioners in England. As with the first two phases of the programme, the training will support practitioners who work in settings attended by children aged 2-4.
Forming part of the Government’s Early Years Recovery package to improve outcomes for those most affected by the pandemic, through driving up quality in early years education, the specialist CPD will be made available to all 152 local authorities in England. This is a huge advancement in the Department for Education’s commitment to improve support and training for the early years sector and will be the biggest roll-out of the programme to date for EDT.
The programme will be delivered through a blended mix of online e-Learning and facilitated webinars with tailored modules based on current early years pedagogy covering Early Mathematics, PSED (Personal, Social and Emotional Development) and Communication and Language.
We are delighted to be working in partnership with industry specialists Dr Sue Gifford and Dr Catherine Gripton to deliver the Early Mathematics content; the Anna Freud Centre to deliver the PSED content and Speech and Language UK to deliver the Language and Communication content.
“The Early Years Professional Development Programme is a significant opportunity for the sector and we are delighted to have been selected to build on our previous successful delivery and reach even more practitioners across the entire country. We recognise the challenges the sector is facing and are confident that the training content we are creating with our key partners will make a considerable difference to the outcomes of some of the most vulnerable children, increasing their life chances, options and opportunities.” Lyn Challender, Programme Director
Further information about phase three of the programme will be made available over the coming weeks. For all enquiries, please email earlyyears@edt.org