Better Start

The Better Start assessment portal can be found on the homepage of the Provider Portal. It enables providers to submit attainment data for funded 2-year-olds directly to the local authority, allowing us to further analyse progress and development.

Using an outcome of 'Met' or 'Emerging', data will be collected against the 3 prime areas of development:

Communication & language development
Personal, social and emotional development
Physical development

Each term, a task will be generated for assessment collections and the information records by providers will be automatically update and held centrally against the child's record. This will enable you and the local authority to monitor progress and attainment levels for your funded 2-year-old children.

The local authority will review the termly data to identify children who are below age expected development. This could enable a provider to access additional support from their Early Years Education Partner, Inclusion Partner and more.

Collection Dates

Term	Task Opening Date	Deadline
Summer 2023	19 June 2023	28 June 2023
Autumn 2023	13 November 2024	22 November 2023
Spring 2024	4 March 2024	15 March 2024
Summer 2024	17 June 2024	28 June 2024
Autumn 2024	18 November 2024	29 November 2024
Spring 2025	3 March 2025	12 March 2025

Guidance

Please watch the following short video for step-by-step guidance on how to submit the Better Start task.

Submitting a Better Start task

Understanding the Assessment

Section 2 of the revised Early Years Foundation Stage 2021 (EYFS) says 'assessment plays an important part in helping parents, carers and practitioners to recognise children's progress, understand their needs, and to plan activities and support'.

The observations that are made provide the information that is needed to make and analysis which then forms the assessment.

Practitioners are expected to make professional judgements when assessment children based on their knowledge and understanding of what a child knows, understands, and can do. The assessment should be based primarily on the key person's professional knowledge. The assessment should be based primarily on the key person's knowledge of what the child knows, remembers and can do. It is based on a holistic view considering contributions from other practitioners, professionals, parents and the child across all 3 areas of learning.

For the Better Start data return, we are not asking you to do anything more than you already do regarding assessment. There are 4 key reasons for assessment within the EYFS:

To recognise progress
To understand needs
To plan activities
To plan support

Assessment is ongoing and fluid with the EYFS and we are simply asking you return your latest summary of where you fee a child is in terms of their learning and development based on your usual means of assessment, for example, Development Matters, using the terms 'Emerging' (indicating the child is working towards the expected, or 'Met' (showing the child is meeting the usual earning and development for their age and stage).