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Updated guidance for early years practitioners on two-year-old check

New guidance for early years practitioners on carrying out the progress check at age two has been released by the Department for Education (DfE).
The DfE has updated guidance on the two -year-old check
The DfE has updated guidance on the two -year-old check

It replaces and updates previous guidance on the check to reflect the revised EYFS and new Development Matters.

An aim of the non-statutory guidance is to reduce practitioners’ workloads by reminding them they do not need to spend a long time away from children in their care to complete the check.

It advises practitioners use their professional judgement when undertaking the assessments and avoid ‘excessive’ tracking and data.

The guidance is also intended to encourage education and health professionals to work together on an integrated review.

However, Beatrice Merrick, chief executive of Early Education told Nursery World that the ‘Government’s ambition to move towards an integrated progress check has proved very tricky in practice.’

She said, ‘We’ve had feedback from members that they are frustrated by the lack of joined-up working between health and education in many areas. The guidance gives this only a cursory mention. In practice, it takes it a lot of time and energy to create and maintain the links between professionals that allow this to work well in practice.’

Merrick also said that there is no data on whether the check is consistently carried out.

The purpose of the two-year-old check is to review a child’s development and progress in the three prime areas of learning and development in the EYFS, identify any areas of concern and work with parents and other professionals to put in place appropriate support and intervention.

The new guidance includes information about when the progress check should be carried out – between the child’s second and third birthday – what actions are legally required of practitioners as set out in the EYFS and the actions which they should take.

It confirms that for children who attend more than one early years setting, the setting where the child spends most of their time should complete the check.

The guidance should be read alongside Development Matters.

  • The updated guidance is available here