Improving Early Year's Quality
Improving Early Year's Quality
Early Years Side by Side: Providers in Partnership (PiP)
Since 2018, the Side by Side PiP programme has been bringing early years practitioners together to share expertise, strengthen partnerships, and champion best practice. At its heart is a clear mission: to raise outcomes for our most vulnerable children by working collaboratively and proactively.
PiPs are a powerful example of what happens when settings and schools unite around a shared purpose. Together, they’ve built a common understanding of strategies that make a real difference — closing achievement gaps, challenging outdated practices, and creating new pathways for improvement. This is about collective responsibility and ensuring every child has the experiences they need to succeed.
Closing the achievement gap at the end of the EYFS remains a top priority for Children’s Services. If you would like to explore how you can contribute to this goal, please contact your Key Contact in the first instance.
Supporting families in the home environment
Parents and carers play a vital role in shaping their children’s learning. Research consistently shows that strong parental engagement is linked to better academic and social outcomes — the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) estimates this can add up to four months of additional progress over a year when done well.
The home learning environment (HLE) — the everyday interactions, routines, and resources available at home — has a profound impact on children’s development. Recent studies highlight that what parents do matters more than their background: activities like shared reading, chatting, singing, and play are strongly associated with language growth and school readiness. Creating positive, low-pressure opportunities for parents to interact with their child — such as library visits, storytelling, or simple games — can make a measurable difference.
Self Evaluation Meeting
Self-evaluation is a cornerstone of effective early years practice. Strong leadership means having a clear, honest picture of your setting’s strengths and areas for development — so you can plan improvements that make a real difference for children.
Many settings already have a process for reflection and evaluation that works well for them. If you don’t, there are plenty of tools and frameworks available to help you review your practice and identify priorities. The key is to make self-evaluation purposeful, collaborative, and focused on impact.
Why it matters:
- It drives continuous improvement.
- It ensures decisions are evidence-based.
- It helps you celebrate successes and tackle challenges head-on.
Self-evaluation isn’t just a tick-box exercise — it’s an opportunity to grow, innovate, and deliver the very best for children and families. Please speak to your Key Contact if you would like further support with this.