What action is needed to deliver the Government’s target for 75% of five-year-olds to achieve a good level of development by 2028?

Laura Outhwaite and Claire Crawford

Early years is high on the policy agenda. The government has pledged that 75% of 4- to 5-year-olds will be “school ready” by 2028, and in July 2025 set out its strategy for giving children the best start in life, which the Education Select Committee is currently reviewing. But what does being “school ready” mean? How close are we to reaching that goal? And what action is needed to get there?

Measuring school readiness

School readiness is measured using the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFS-P). This is a statutory assessment of children’s development and learning completed by teachers at the end of the Reception year – typically the first year of school for most children – at age 4-5 years. A child is considered to have a good level of development if they meet or exceed expectations in all three of the prime areas of learning: “Personal, social and emotional development”, “Communication and language” and “Physical development”, as well as the two specific areas: “Literacy” and “Mathematics”.

National trends mask regional inequalities

In the latest data (2023-24), 67.7% of children reached a good level of development. This is a steady improvement from 65.2% in 2021-22 when the revised EYFS-P was introduced. But there is still a long way to go. According to the Department for Education’s (DfE) estimates, reaching the 75% target would mean raising the school readiness outcomes of an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children.

Behind the headline figures, there are stark geographic inequalities across the 153 local authorities (LAs) in England. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development ranges from 59.6% in Manchester to 84.2% in the City of London. Only four LAs currently exceed the 75% target: City of London, Isles of Scilly (both of which are the smallest LAs in terms of size and population), Richmond Upon Thames and Wokingham (both of which are among the least deprived LAs in England). Meanwhile, 34 LAs are 10 or more percentage points away from meeting the 75% target[1]; many of which are ranked amongst the most deprived LAs in England. Looking across all LAs, there is a strong relationship between the average Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) score in a LA – a measure of the proportion of families with children in an area who are claiming income support related benefits – and the percentage of children reaching a good level of development. On average, for every one-point increase in deprivation, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development in a LA fell by around 0.4 percentage points.

What action is needed to reach the school readiness goal?

So, what could and should the government do to increase the proportion of children who are school ready, particularly in disadvantaged areas?

Previous research has highlighted the importance of access to and participation in early education, particularly high-quality early education , and support for families as important drivers of children’s early outcomes. We therefore examined whether these factors were associated with area-level differences in the proportion of children reaching a good level of development, focusing particularly on the experiences of children aged 3-4, as it is children who are currently in this age group who will contribute to meeting the government’s school readiness target in 2028.

The quality of early years provision matters

The factor that came through most strongly in our analysis was the quality of early years provision. Our results showed that LAs with a higher proportion of children taking their 15-hour early education entitlement in a setting rated as Outstanding by Ofsted when they were 3-4 years old had significantly higher school readiness outcomes. This holds true over and above the deprivation level of the area. So, it is not just that more advantaged areas have more high-quality provision and more children who are likely to be school ready. This highlights the importance of quality in early education provision.

By contrast, greater childcare availability and higher take-up of the early education entitlements amongst 3–4-year-olds were not found to positively predict school readiness. This suggests that without access to high-quality provision, expanding access and encouraging take-up alone may not raise children’s outcomes sufficiently.

The number of Family Hubs in a local area was also not associated with higher school readiness. Although with most LAs having four or fewer hubs, and the focus in the period up to the 2023-24 EYFS-P assessments being on 0-19-olds, not 0-5-year-olds, as will be the case going forward, coverage for 3-4-year-olds may currently be too limited to make a detectable difference to outcomes at scale.

An explicit focus on Literacy, Mathematics and Communication and language

Alongside improving the overall quality of early years provision, there must also be an explicit focus on the domains where children are most likely to fall behind: Literacy, Mathematics, and Communication and language.

A good level of development requires children to meet expectations across all five areas of learning, yet outcomes vary considerably between domains. More than three‑quarters of children achieve the early learning goals in Personal, social and emotional development (82.8%), Communication and language (79.3%), Physical development (84.7%) and Mathematics (77.1%). Literacy stands out as the weakest area, with only 70% of children meeting expectations, and only 13 LAs in which more than 75% of children achieve the literacy-related early learning goals. The fact that these figures are all higher than the overall proportion of children reaching a good level of development (67.7%) – in some cases considerably so – suggests that some children are likely to be missing out on the good level of development benchmark by falling short in just one or two domains rather than across all domains, highlighting the importance of concentrated action in particular domains.

These findings suggest that achieving the government’s 75% school readiness target will require targeted national and local strategies that prioritise Literacy in particular, as well as Mathematics, and Communication and language. Directing resources, interventions, and support towards these domains, particularly in deprived areas, will be essential to ensure more children reach a good level of development.

Conclusion

Ensuring that 75% of children are school ready by 2028 is an ambitious but important goal. While national outcomes are improving, progress is uneven, and large gaps remain across areas in England. To close these early learning gaps, more targeted support is needed for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and in local areas with high levels of child-related deprivation. Our findings also highlight the importance of ensuring access to high-quality early education in a way that is not confined to already affluent areas, as well as ensuring an explicit focus on the domains where children are most likely to fall behind: Literacy, Mathematics, and Communication and language. Overall, closing the school readiness gap will demand more than incremental progress. It requires a deliberate focus on equity, quality, and targeted support where it is needed most.

[1] These LAs include Manchester, Salford, Halton, Middlesbrough, Bradford, Sandwell, Luton, Tameside, Liverpool, Rochdale, Peterborough, Sefton, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Leicester, Knowsley, Blackpool, Coventry, Nottingham, Oldham, Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent, Wigan, Rotherham, Blackburn with Darwen, Kingston upon Hull, Sheffield, North Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Derby, Westmorland and Furness, Leeds, Birmingham and Bury.