Early Years Education

4.8 Although primary compulsory education begins at five years old, a large and growing percentage of children start formal education earlier than this, reflecting the Government’s policy of ‘early years’ education. Previous measures to provide free part-time nursery education places for every three and four year old whose parents want one, which came into force on 1st April 2004, have been extended by the recent 2006 Childcare Act, aimed at improving the accessibility of high quality childcare services for children under five and their families.

4.9 There were 94,700 three and four year olds in early years education within Local Education Authority (LEA) maintained nursery and primary schools in the South West at the end of January 2007, up from 46,200 in 2004.

Table 4.1 Three and four year olds in maintained nursery and primary schools, 2007

Three year olds (000s)

Four year olds (000s)

Total (000s)

South West

44.7

50.0

94.7

England

506.1

548.7

1,054.8

Note: Part time equivalent number of free early education places filled by three and four year olds, based on  headcount of children aged three at 31st December in the previous calendar year from the School Census.

Source: DfES SFR19 2007