Alliance responds to findings of new research on the impact on the free early education entitlement

22nd October 2014

Commenting on the findings of new research by the University of Surrey, the University of Essex and the Institute of Education, which suggests that free early education entitlement does not deliver long-term benefits, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said:

“It is important to note that these findings suggest that the introduction of free early education places had a limited impact on outcomes, largely because most children accessing places would have done so anyway, even if the places were not free. This is not the same as saying that early education itself has a limited impact, and should not be misinterpreted as such.

“In fact, the research found that for those children who otherwise would not have accessed any early education, the provision of places through the free entitlement scheme had a notably positive impact: an increase in Early Years Foundation Stage Profile scores at age five of 17% on average.

“We are surprised, however, by the suggestion that this positive impact becomes less evident in the long term, and it should be noted that this contradicts a wealth of existing research which has found that the opposite is true: most notably the recent EPPSE study which concluded that early years provision has ‘enduring benefits’ for those children that attend, including better outcomes at GCSE and greater earning potential in the longer term.”

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Notes for editors

  1. The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
  2. Through direct provision and its membership of 14,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
  3. For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website:

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