Evidence-Based Early Years Maths Programme

The Department for Education is commissioning an evidence-based early maths programme aimed at improving numeracy outcomes for children in early years settings across England. Early maths skills are strongly linked to later academic achievement and workforce success, yet many children begin school without the expected level of development in maths. Despite its importance within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), maths remains one of the lowest-performing areas, partly due to limited training and confidence among educators. This contract will support the delivery of an evidence-based early maths programme to at least 5,000 settings, with a minimum completion rate of 80%, and requires programmes to be backed by robust evaluation, either a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) or Quasi-Experimental Design (QED) plus an implementation and process evaluation (IPE).