In Building a Brighter Future: Early Years and Childcare Plan (2013) the Welsh Government set out how it would make early years Foundation Phase provision more accessible. The ultimate aim of increasing flexibility of provision is to increase participation in the early years of the Foundation Phase.
To further these aims in 2013 the Welsh Government established a flexibility pilot scheme, inviting four local authorities to explore ways of increasing flexibility in the provision of the early years of the Foundation Phase. The aims of the Flexibility Pilots were to:
- Test the flexibility options across the Foundation Phase in the maintained and non-maintained funded settings
- Identify issues that may surface for local authorities and settings as a result of providing or trying to provide greater flexibility.
- Consider how those issues can be addressed through low-cost/no cost solutions.
- Gain a better understanding of whether increased flexibility makes a difference to parent’s ability to access the Foundation Phase for their child.
This summary outlines the effects of the pilots on parents, children and settings and the salient issues which pertain to each of these groups. The report also highlights other significant general issues which arose over the course of the research. Generally, the flexibility pilots were found to have worked well and to have helped solve or alleviate the problems they were designed to address across the different local authorities.