The Froebel Trust is proud to be the main funder of a project to create an enhanced second edition of Birth to 5 Matters.
In 2020, the Early Years Coalition came together to produce Birth to 5 Matters non-statutory guidance for the early childhood education and care sector. The guidance was designed to support practitioners with implementing the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework (EYFS), revised in 2021.
As a member of the Early Years Coalition, the Froebel Trust supported the work to consult with the sector and the guidance was published on 31 March 2021. It has since been downloaded 366,000 times, sold over 40,000 hard copies and the Birth to 5 Matters website has had 1.2 million users and 7.6 million page views. It is widely used and valued across the early years sector in England.
Since then, there have been a number of minor updates to the EYFS Statutory Framework and a new Labour government, which has made early years a priority policy.
A project to create an enhanced second edition of the guidance began in 2025, again supported by the Froebel Trust, this time as its main funder.
The Early Years Coalition launched a sector survey in November 2025 to guide priorities to be reviewed in the revised edition. On 30 March 2026 the revised draft was then shared with the sector alongside an online survey, giving the sector a further opportunity to comment before the final version is written. The survey closed on 20 April 2026 and the guidance is now being finalised.
A final version of the second edition is due to be released in Summer 2026.
For more information on the guidance visit the Birth to 5 Matters website.
