Section One: Policy context of the EPPE Study
EPPE began in 1997, at a time when the main educational priority at national and local level was
for children in statutory schooling (aged 5 - 16 years). At this time, early years policy and
research were considered to be in a ‘backwater’ compared to statutory schooling. The Rumbold
Report (DES, 1990) highlighted the potential for pre-school education to give children a better
start at school. This was followed by the Start Right Report (Ball, 1994), in which Sylva made a
convincing case for the mid- and long-term effects of early education on motivational as well as
academic outcomes. By 1996 the time was ripe for a large-scale longitudinal study on the effects
of pre-school on children’s developmental outcomes.
Since 1997 the UK government has been consistently committed to expanding early years
services. There are two thrusts to this commitment: (a) the need to prepare all children,
especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, for the challenging National Curriculum which
lies ahead, and (b) the contribution of child care to helping workless families move out of poverty
and into paid employment (Inter-departmental Childcare Review, 2002). Both of these aims sit
well with the social inclusion and raising standards agenda.
The 2002 Inter-departmental Review promised that ‘the way in which policy is made and services
are delivered will be transformed.... through joining up (Early Childhood) services and merging
the relevant services within central government’ (p.4). But will these policies ‘work’? The EPPE
study was cited prominently in the review as evidence for optimism: ‘There is strong evidence
that certain types of early years education and childcare can play an important role in raising
cognitive and social/behavioural outcomes and thereby increase the ability to learn’ (p.30).
Moreover, the advantage of integrating child-care and education was supported by the EPPE
findings on child impact and is one justification for the new move towards Children’s Centres1.
This report describes the longitudinal research on effective pre-school provision funded by the
UK Department for Education and Skills (DfES) over a six-year period. Further details appear in
a series of Technical Paper (see Appendix D). The background and design is described in depth
in Technical Paper 1 (Sylva, Sammons, Melhuish, Siraj-Blatchford & Taggart,1999).
There are many initiatives in different countries intended to improve educational outcomes for
young children. Will these initiatives meet the ambitious aims of policy makers? Will they enable
children to enter school ‘more ready’ to learn, or achieve more at the end of primary schooling?
Which are the most effective ways to educate young children? The research project described in
this report is part of the government’s emphasis on ensuring ‘a good start’ for children through
basing policy and practice on rigorous research evidence.
1 The Children’s Centre programme is an innovative Government initiative to develop centres, which
combine a range of services for children ‘under one roof’. They combine a core service delivering health,
family support and outreach work linked with a Children’s Information Service.
1