Children's minister Beverley Hughes said, 'It is essential that we monitor local authority performance on how effectively they are making a real difference to the life chances of our youngest children. We are consulting on how we can involve each local authority in setting their own challenging but realistic objectives for improving the development of all children.'
From 2008, all local authorities will have statutory targets for improving the outcomes and reducing inequalities between children up to the age of five. Targets will be based on local authorities' annual Foundation Stage Profile results, which from September 2008 will be superseded by Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results.
The consultation says, 'Unlike targets for Key Stage 1 and beyond, there are no statutory powers to require schools (or other settings) to generate targets at their level.' It adds that it is 'not appropriate to set child-level targets at such a young age' and recommends that 'local authorities should help settings to develop a good learning environment'.
The closing date for responses made at www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations is 31 January 2007.
* Child-level information, p5