Add your voice to Birmingham’s collective sector response to the DfE’s “Space Requirements in Early Years Childcare Settings in England” consultation
On 12 May 2025, the Department for Education (DfE) launched its ‘Space Requirements in Early Years Childcare Settings in England’ consultation, which runs until 11 July 2025.
To ensure we make the most of this opportunity, Birmingham City Council (BCC) Early Years and Childcare Team have scheduled three consultation events, and we warmly invite you to attend one of them.
Your thoughts and suggestions are crucial, and we look forward to collating them as a sector.
We urge you to join one of the consultation events below so we can capture the voices of Birmingham’s childcare providers. We have until 11 July 2025 to provide our feedback.
Prior to our consultation discussions, we urge you to review the links below:
EYFS space requirements consultation – Consultation background document
Space requirements in early years childcare settings in England - Department for Education – Online Survey
REGISTER: (Please only register for ONE session)
Other available sessions:
NOTE: This event will be delivered online via Microsoft Teams
If you are unable to join any of the above sessions, we urge you to please complete the online survey with your comments independently: Space requirements in early years childcare settings in England - Department for Education
Contact: Sharron McKenzie-Lewis (Sharron.McKenzie-Lewis@birmingham.gov.uk)
Why now?
As we get more children ready for school at age 5, the DfE is exploring new ways to help providers offer more high-quality childcare places for families, which include access to outdoor space.
Evidence shows the huge benefits of outdoor play to children, from improved problem-solving to mental and physical health. Yet currently, the government’s early years framework requires provision of outdoor play but only formally recognises indoor space in its requirements for how many children nurseries and childcare providers can take on at any one time.
This consultation has been launched by the government because early years providers expressed a desire for these rules to be updated.
To meet forecasted demands for the expanded entitlements, the DfE estimates that an additional 60,000 new places are required between September 2024 and September 2025, and one of the barriers to expanding childcare is physical space.
In the department’s Pulse surveys of childcare and early years providers, November 2023, 70% of providers who responded said they would make better use of their outdoor space if more flexibility were introduced.