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Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:

"While we recognise that there was a need to review and refresh Development Matters after nearly a decade, we are both concerned and disappointed by the revised guidance, which mainly serves to highlight the serious flaws contained within the new Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.

"Early education should be about supporting the needs of each individual child and ensuring that they are at the centre of their own learning, something that was championed in the previous version of Development Matters, but is sadly lacking in this latest guidance.

"As a result, those more experienced early years practitioners will find little in the new document to help improve their practice while, even more concerningly, those who are new to the early years will now be presented with a narrow and limited view of how children learn and develop, and their essential role in supporting this. 

"With so many educational experts expressing concerns about the current direction of travel of the early years curriculum, we urge the government to listen, take stock, and acknowledge that it needs to change its approach on this critical issue sooner rather than later."