The DfE's Giving every child the best start in life strategy, includes a commitment to improve the quality of education that children receive in early years settings, including childminders and reception classes.

To support this, the DfE have introduced the following offers, designed specifically for early years educators:

• Early Years Child Development Training
• Excellence in Reception Teaching Course
• NPQ in Early Years Leadership
• NPQ Headship (with enhanced early years content)

There are a number of other DfE CPD opportunities aimed at early years and reception year educators:

• Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-based professional development for early years settings.
• The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme targets reception-aged children who need extra support with their speech and language development.
• English Hubs and Maths hubs offer a range of support to schools to support the teaching of English and mathematics.
• The reception networks programme is a national initiative to improve the quality of reception year provision and support more children to start school ready to learn.
• Visit the department’s reception improvement offer for information on the wider support and professional development offer for improving teaching and leadership of reception.
• The Education Endowment Foundation’s Early Years Toolkit areas for learning and development in early years.
• The Early Years Level 3 SENCO provides a summary of evidence on key is intended to support early years practitioners to gain accreditation for the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to perform the Early Years SENCO role effectively.