What does the pledge mean? 

The government’s “Plan for Change”, launched on 5 December 2024, contains a “milestone” for “a record 75% of 5-year-olds in England ready to learn when they start school”. 

In notes accompanying the plan, the government said that progress on this promise will be measured “through 75% of 5-year-olds reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage assessment … by 2028”. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile is a statutory assessment that measures a child’s development, typically during the final term of the academic year in which they turn five. Teachers assess children on 17 early learning goals across seven areas of learning (communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, expressive arts and design). 

Each year two figures are published for the outcome of this assessment—the percentage of five-year-olds “with a good level of development”, and the percentage who are at the “expected level across all early learning goals”. 

Children are considered to have a “good level of development” if they are at the expected level for the 12 goals set within five of the areas of learning that feature in the assessment—communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development, literacy and mathematics. 

This figure is the one the government is using to measure progress. In 2023/24, 67.7% of children had a good level of development. The government says that meeting its target of 75% would mean an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children a year reaching this level.

What progress has been made?

We don’t expect to have data on how many children in 2024/25 were considered to have a “good level of development” until November 2025, so we’ve currently rated this pledge as ‘Wait and see’. We won’t be able to say if the pledge has been achieved or not kept until 2028, but in the meantime may be able to say if it appears on or off track. 

The government has outlined policies it believes will help it “achieve this milestone”, such as “recruiting 6,500 extra teachers”, expanding government-funded childcare support and working “in partnership with the sector, reforming training and support for the workforce to drive up standards”.