Consultation Hub

This consultation invited views on two proposals:  

Part one: to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions for new and existing free schools, helping to encourage all faith groups and trusts to apply to open new faith free schools within the tenets of their faith. 

Part two: to allow new special academies and existing special academies registered with the Department for Education as having a faith ethos to apply to be designated as having a religious character.  

A total of 3668 responses were received. Most respondents (66%) disagreed or strongly disagreed with both proposals.  

We would like to thank all those who responded to the consultation. The government will not be moving forward with these proposals at this time and will continue to keep these policy areas under review.

The government has committed to remove barriers to opportunity and raise school standards. We believe work underway in other areas to this consultation will better support our mission, and we look forward to working in partnership with all types of school, including the important contribution of faith schools, in achieving our mission.

The Department for Education consulted on proposals to strengthen safeguarding requirements in the statutory EYFS framework. Proposals covered: safer recruitment, child absences, safeguarding training, paediatric first aid training, safer eating, toileting and privacy.

The consultation received 1470 responses. There was strong support from respondents for all the consultation proposals, with clear consensus that the safeguarding reforms will improve children’s safety and align with current best practice in early years settings.

Based on consultation responses Government will proceed with implementing:

• All of the safeguarding changes that were consulted on, with minor changes to the wording for additional clarity.

• 2 new changes on whistleblowing and providing employment references.

We intend to proceed with statutory national implementation of the EYFS safeguarding reforms from 1^st September 2025. You can read the Government’s response to the consultation in full on the Early years foundation stage (EYFS) safeguarding - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) webpage.

The Department for Education consulted on a proposed decision-making model, eligibility criteria and process requirements for an experience-based route for early years staff. The proposed route would allow staff who do not hold approved qualifications to be included in the staff:child ratios at level 3 following a period of supervised practice.

The consultation received 1159 responses. The responses were broadly supportive, with a range of between 52% to 92% of respondents agreeing with each proposal.

Based on the responses to the consultation Government will proceed with implementing the experience-based route for early years staff. We have listened to the feedback on the detail of this proposed route in the consultation, and used this to inform how this route will work for early years providers.

We intend to proceed with the introduction of the experience-based route from 3^rd March 2025, subject to parliamentary approval. The Government’s response to the consultation is available online at Experience-based route for early years practitioners - GOV.UK, and guidance on the experience-based route can be found at Experience-based route for early years staff - GOV.UK.