Call for toddlers to have ‘walk and talk’ checks

The checks would help identify any early problems or special educational needs, Dame Clare Tickell’s review into the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) for under-fives, concludes.

It said there should be a “requirement” for childminders and nurseries to provide parents with written summaries between the ages of two and three of their children’s progress in “prime areas” such as communication and language, personal, social, emotional and physical development.

The review also calls for everyone who works with under-fives to hold at least A-levels or equivalent qualifications.

At the moment, more than one in four of those working with young children only holds GCSE-level qualifications or less.

Dame Clare’s review into EYFS, which has been dubbed the “nappy curriculum”, concludes that while the system has helped to boost standards, it is bogged down by targets and left staff spending too much time filling in forms rather than helping children.

It calls for EYFS to be radically cut back, reducing the number of goals youngsters are expected to meet by the age of five from 69 to 17.

Yesterday, Dame Clare, chief executive of the Action for Children charity, said the EYFS was “far from perfect”.

“The current EYFS is cumbersome, repetitive and unnecessarily bureaucratic.

“And it isn’t doing enough to engage parents in their child’s development or make sure children are starting school with the basic skills they need to be ready to learn.”

The review says that the development checks, for children who are at nurseries or looked after by childminders, would accompany health visitor checks at age two.