VerbatimParliament, as it happens

Pre-school Education: West Midlands

Asked by Preet Kaur GillLabour (Co-op)Department for EducationTabled Answered 22 April 2025UIN 45083

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of five year olds were school ready in (a) Birmingham Edgbaston constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Stephen Morgan

Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health and life chances. That is why the department’s Plan for Change set out our ambition for a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. We will measure our progress through 75% of children reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile was significantly revised in September 2021. It is therefore not possible to directly compare assessment outcomes since 2021/22 with earlier years.

The department has published data through the early years foundation stage teacher assessment since 2021/2022 which can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results/2023-24.

Local authority and regional data from 2013 to 2019 can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results-2018-to-2019.

Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →

Open this question in Verbatim →

Every written question, searchable

155,000 questions tabled since the election, with the answer each department gave — and the ones still unanswered, with the clock running. Free to search.

Search written questions →Read on Verbatim