Understanding the take-up of early education entitlements

This project will explore the take-up of early education entitlements.

Early education entitlements for all three and four year olds, and disadvantaged two year olds, aim to support development and reduce inequalities. However, a substantial minority of children miss out on some or all of their entitlement. Disadvantaged children are particularly likely to miss out.

Why do parents not take up these entitlements, and what can be done to increase take-up?

Research suggests that local context may be particularly important. Take-up rates for the two-year-old entitlement range from 39% in some local authorities to 97% in others. Studies have not generally considered how structural features of local early education and childcare systems (such as a mix of provider types or costs), may support or undermine take-up.

Research objectives

This project will:

1. Construct measures of take-up of early education entitlements and explore how they vary across groups of children and local authorities.
2. Produce new evidence on structural features of local early education and childcare system that support or undermine take-up among different groups of children, including families from low socio-economic backgrounds, ethnic minority families, and children with special educational needs.
3. Identify local authority interventions used to support take-up and provide new evidence on their use and effectiveness, with a view to identifying scalable approaches.

Approach

The research will be completed in four phases:

• The first two phases will involve a review of existing evidence, stakeholder interviews, and surveys of LA early years staff.
• In phase three, data from the Early Years Census will be used to construct new measures of entitlement take-up, investigate variation across population groups and LAs, and explore the relationship between take-up rates and LA characteristics.
• The data from the LA survey in phase two will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions which encourage take-up of entitlements.
• During the final phase, focus groups will be carried out with parents, early education and childcare providers, and LAs.

Outcomes

The research team will disseminate findings through:

• online webinars, blogs, technical papers, and briefings
• events for policymakers and practitioners in central and local government
• a guide for local authority staff, which will focus on the practical implications of the findings.

The final project report will be free to download on this page.