Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a term defined in Section 39 of the British government's Childcare Act 2006. The EYFS comprises a set of Welfare Requirements and a set of Learning and Development Requirements, which must be followed by providers of care for children below five years old – the age of compulsory education in the United Kingdom. The Welfare and Learning and Development requirements are not specified in the Act but in separate Orders.

The legislation took effect from September 2008. The Welfare requirements apply to the whole of the UK, but the Learning and Development requirements apply only in England.

All childcare providers, including childminders, nurseries, kindergartens and pre-school classes, are obliged to register under the Childcare Act in order to operate legally. To become and remain registered they must comply with the Welfare requirements, and with the L&D requirements for settings in England (except where exempted).

The Learning and Development requirements (applicable in England only) are unusual in principle in imposing compulsory educational targets

The L&D targets are controversial in not being generally accepted by experts in child development and education as being appropriate for this age group. They include literacy requirements that five-year-olds should:

There are similar levels of requirements for numeracy.

There is a body of professional opinion that attempting to push under-5s into early literacy is ineffective or even counterproductive, possibly even producing reading difficulties in some children through the experience of early failure, and other problems including ADHD. It is reported that schools in Scandinavian and other countries, and Steiner schools, where children start school at six or seven years old, produce better academic results.

Apart from the question of whether the L&D targets are appropriate for the age group, there is controversy over the prescriptive nature of the curriculum, burdensome nature of the assessments of children they demand and stress inflicted upon young children by the curriculum and assessment (as with SATs to which older children are subjected).

The Childcare Act makes provision for exemptions from the Learning and development requirements for

The circumstances under which exemptions may be granted are to be stipulated in the Early Years Foundation Stage (Exemptions from Learning and Development Requirements) Order, which as of 20 June 2008 had not yet been laid before Parliament.

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