Every child deserves the same chance to develop to their full potential regardless of their family circumstances, but currently, many children are not reaching a good level of development by the time they start school.

The government has set ambitious targets for local authorities in England to improve these outcomes to 75% of children reaching a good level of development by 2028. On 27 November, the Department for Education released the data that will measure this progress: the latest Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) results.

The EYFSP is a statutory assessment conducted at the end of reception by teachers and measures whether children are achieving a good level of development across 17 early learning goals. The results show the percentage of children who reach this milestone and provide a snapshot of children's development at the end of their foundation phase. 

This year's data reveals persistent gaps in outcomes for children based on their eligibility for free school meals, gender and where they live.

There has been a modest increase compared to last year’s figure of 67.7%.

In recent years, there has been a continued but slowing upward trend in good levels of development. In 2021/22, 65.2% of children reached this milestone, rising to 67.2% in 2022/23 and then only slightly to 67.7% in 2023/24. This year’s figure of 68.3% is consistent with this recent trend.

Whilst this direction of travel is positive, around 3 in every 10 children still start school without the foundational skills necessary to flourish in reception and beyond. It also puts us 6.7 percentage points behind the government's ambition for 75% of children to reach a good level of development by 2028. 

The good level of development gap between children eligible for free school meals and their peers stands at 20.5 percentage points. More than half (51.3%) of children eligible for free school meals are achieving a good level of development compared to 71.8% of children not eligible or with unknown eligibility status. 

Since the pandemic and introduction of the new EYFSP, there has always been a gap between these two groups. Whilst this year’s figure of 20.5 percentage points is the highest recorded in this time, it’s very similar to previous years. In 2023/24, 2022/23, and 2021/22, the gap stood at 19.5, 19.0, and 19.6 percentage points, respectively.

In 2024/25, 43.5% of boys eligible for free school meals reached a good level of development compared to 65.3% of non-eligible boys. Equivalent figures for girls stood at 59.3% and 78.6%, respectively.

Over the past three years, we have consistently seen that the outcome gap between children eligible for free school meals and their peers is greater for boys than for girls, and this trend continues in this year’s data.

While nine of the ten regions have seen very minor improvements in the percentage of children reaching a good level of development at age five, the North West, Yorkshire and The Humber, and the North East continue to perform the lowest. These regions have 65.0%, 66.2% and 66.5% of children reaching a good level of development, respectively. 

In comparison, 70.8% of children in Outer London, 70.7% in the South East and 70.3% in Inner London are reaching a good level of development. The South West has also seen the biggest regional improvement, though only by 1%.

In local authorities such as Manchester, Rochdale, Tameside, Middlesbrough, Sandwell and Bradford, the percentage of children achieving a good level of development was below 62%. For the top-four performing local authorities, over 75% of five-year-olds reached a good level of development. 

There has been some consistency over recent years in terms of which local authorities are struggling. Of the 10 local authorities with the lowest share of children reaching a good level of development, eight of them were amongst the bottom 10 last year, and three have been amongst the bottom 10 since 2021/22. Manchester has consistently had the lowest percentage of children reaching a good level of development in the past three years, though this has improved from 53.1% in 2021/22 to 60.3% reaching this milestone in 2024/2025.

With the government’s aim for 75% of all children to reach a good level of development by 2028, and only four local authorities currently reaching this milestone - City of London, Wokingham, Richmond upon Thames, Waltham Forest, it’s clear that significant improvements are needed across England.

Some local authorities, such as Havering and South Tyneside, are closing the attainment gap between children eligible for free school meals and their peers. Havering has reduced the gap by 10.1 percentage points, and South Tyneside has seen a reduction in the attainment gap of 8.7 percentage points since last year. However, others have seen these gaps widen since last year: an increase of 12.6 percentage points for Redcar and Cleveland and 7.8 percentage points for Blackburn with Darwen. This size of increase in the gap is relatively unusual, with 90% of local authorities typically falling between a range of narrowing the gap by 3% and widening the gap by 5%. 

When we look at local authorities with the smallest attainment gap between children eligible for free school meals and their peers, eight of these top 10 local authorities are London boroughs. Hackney has the smallest at only 3 percentage points. Looking at those with the largest gaps, we see a national spread. The largest gaps are in Rutland (39.7 percentage points) and Bath and North East Somerset (38.5 percentage points).

Whilst it is positive to see a slight increase in the share of children reaching a good level of development, this is not yet enough to reach the government’s target of 75%. Around 3 in 10 children are still starting school without reaching this milestone. And the persistent gap between those on free school meals and their peers is also a cause for concern. 

The data shows local authorities are facing varied challenges, with nearly all having a way to go if the 75% target is to be realised, and some struggling in particular with a wide attainment gap between children on free school meals and their more affluent peers. There are a whole host of reasons specific areas may struggle, and we want to offer support where the need is greatest. 

Nesta has live work to support local authorities as they develop their strategic plans to improve good levels of development in pursuit of the government’s Best Start in Life strategy. We are offering a package of support to all local authorities, but we are also scoping the options to provide more hands-on, intensive help to those who would most benefit from it. This year’s data is a clear reminder that to improve outcomes for children, we need ambitious, credible strategic local authority plans - and we will continue working with the sector in pursuit of this goal.