Pledge
“Giving children the best start in life, with a record 75% of 5-year-olds in England ready to learn when they start school”
Our verdict
The latest data shows 68.3% of five-year-olds had a good level of development at the end of the 2024/25 academic year, a 0.6 percentage point increase on the year before. However, we so far only have data for one academic year under Labour so it’s too early to identify longer-term trends.
The government’s “Plan for Change”, launched on 5 December 2024, contains a “milestone” for “a record 75% of 5-year-olds in England ready to learn when they start school”.
In notes accompanying the plan, the government said that progress on this promise will be measured “through 75% of 5-year-olds reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage assessment … by 2028”.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile is a statutory assessment that measures a child’s development, typically during the final term of the academic year in which they turn five. Teachers assess children on 17 early learning goals across seven areas of learning (communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, expressive arts and design).
Each year two figures are published for the outcome of this assessment—the percentage of five-year-olds “with a good level of development”, and the percentage who are at the “expected level across all early learning goals”.
Children are considered to have a “good level of development” if they are at the expected level for the 12 goals set within five of the areas of learning that feature in the assessment—communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development, literacy and mathematics.
This figure is the one the government is using to measure progress. In 2023/24, 67.7% of children had a good level of development. The government says that meeting its target of 75% would mean an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children a year reaching this level.
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We’re continuing to rate this pledge as ‘Wait and see’. While the data we do have shows an increase in the proportion of children with a good level of development, it’s too early to confidently identify longer-term trends across Labour’s time in government.
In the 2024/25 academic year 68.3% of five-year-olds had a good level of development, according to the latest annual statistics.
This represented a 0.6 percentage point increase on the 67.7% of five-year-olds with this level of development in the 2023/24 academic year.
As things stand, if the proportion was to increase this amount each year the target of 75% would be missed, but past trends suggest these stats don’t typically increase linearly each year.
We won’t be able to say if the pledge has been achieved or not until 2028.
The government has outlined policies it believes will help it “achieve this milestone”, such as “recruiting 6,500 extra teachers”, expanding government-funded childcare support and working “in partnership with the sector, reforming training and support for the workforce to drive up standards”.
As we develop this Government Tracker we’re keen to hear your feedback. We’ll be keeping the Tracker up to date and adding more pledges in the coming months.
Progress displayed publicly—so every single person in this country can judge our performance on actions, not words.
Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister – 24 September 2024