Skip to content

Local and National strategic priority alignment

The building blocks of success are laid in the early years of a child’s life, as they begin to communicate, build relationships, play, and learn. In these early years parents need access to health, family support, and education services working hand in hand.

The Childcare Act 2006 provides a framework for early years services delivery and requires Local Authorities to:

  • ensure joint working across agencies from pre-birth to five to improve outcomes and narrows the gap
  • ensure that the legal entitlements for nursery education are available through the provision of sufficient care and childcare which enables families to work or undertake work related activity – Early Years (EY) and Childcare Sufficiency duty
  • provide information about services and support (for both families and early years providers).

The Government strategy, Giving every child the best start in life sets out a new approach to supporting children and families from their first days of life. The aim is to make services available and accessible to families and to join up those services so that information can be shared to give children consistent support that fits their needs.

Best Start in Life explicitly links to other policy and practice initiatives, including Families First guidance, NHS 10-year plan and the link to the Neighbourhood health data which refers to the alignment of local health data, primary care registration patterns, early years health indicators, and deprivation information at small-area (ward/Lower Super Output Area/Primary Care Network) level. Linking these frameworks under a shared mission will strengthen early support for families.

National Policy Alignment

Diagram shows "Best Start in Life Local Plans" feeding into: "Best Start in Life Strategy 2025", "Child Poverty Strategy", "NHS 10 Year Plan", "Family Hubs and Best Start for Life Programme", "Families First Programme", "Education White Paper".

The development of our local strategy and delivery plan draws on our Children and Young People’s One Plan, aligned with our joint commissioning strategy, strategic needs assessment and SEND and Inclusion strategies.

The One Plan for Gloucestershire commits to four objectives, focused on 3 stages of a child/young person’s life: Starting Well (pre-birth to 5), Growing Well (5yrs through primary and into secondary education) and Being Well (middle teenage through post 16 years).

How we measure our success –

  • Equity – Close the gap and eliminate inequalities
  • Access – Right help at the right time for all children
  • Inclusion – A county where everyone belongs and we celebrate diversity
  • Quality – Effective, outstanding services.

Local Policy Alignment

Diagram shows "Best Start in Life Local Plan" feeding into: "Glos Family Hubs and FFP", "C&YP One Plan", "Joint Strategic Needs Assessment", "SEND & Inclusion Strategies", "Joint Commissioning Strategy", "Early Help Strategy"

Targets

Aligned with its Best Start Strategy; the Department for Education allocated each local area a specific target to increase the percentage of children attaining a good level of development (GLD) at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) by 2028.

The statutory target for Gloucestershire will be considered “achieved” if the following two conditions are met:

  1. The proportion of children attaining a GLD at the end of the 2027/28 academic year is at least 77.2% an increase from 68.6% in 2025 and;
  2. Disadvantaged children have benefitted at least equally from this improvement; that is, the proportion of children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and attaining a Good Level of Development at the end of the 2027/28 academic year is at least 60%, an increase from 48.4% in 2025.

To reach our overall target of 77.2% by 2028, an additional 538 children need to attain a good level of development.

To reach our free school meals EYFS target of 60% by 2028, an additional 84 children eligible for free school meals would need to attain GLD.

In addition to the Government’s allocated targets, to ensure our strategy is also focussed on narrowing EYFS attainment gaps for children from specific ethnic groups and those with special educational needs, we have set local targets to:

  • Increase the percentage of Black African/Black Caribbean/Black British children attaining GLD from 59.28 to 63% by 2028. (in line with national average) This equates to an additional 11 children
  • Increase the percentage of Asian/Asian British children attaining GLD from 55.01% to 62% by 2028. (in line with national average) This equates to an additional 27 children
  • Increase the percentage of children with SEN support attaining GLD from 23.12% to
  • 26% (in line with national average). This equates to an additional 20 children.
  • Increase the percentage of children with an Education, Health and Care plan attaining GLD from 2.56% to 4% (in line with national average). This equates to an additional 6 children.