Education Endowment Foundation Pilot of Early Skills for Life

We are delighted to be working with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to pilot our Early Skills for Life (ESfL) programme for three- to four-year-olds in 20 early years settings across England from September 2026 to May 2027.

Early Skills for Life is a 20-week universal programme, with additional targeted elements, designed to strengthen young children’s self-regulation and personal, social and emotional development (PSED). Through carefully structured storybook suggestions and play-based activities, the programme supports children to develop the foundational skills that underpin later learning, wellbeing and life outcomes.

This pilot project will be independently evaluated by Oxford MeasurEd, a boutique global education consultancy, who will assess the feasibility, perceived impact on children’s self-regulation and personal, social and emotional development and perceived changes in staff and families as well as potential scalability of Early Skills for Life. The evaluation will also explore how settings implemented the programme and their motivation to engage with the programme. These findings will be published in an evaluation report. 

Early Skills for Life was previously supported through the EEF’s Early-Stage Programme Development funding, which backs innovative approaches in areas where evidence is still emerging. Following encouraging early-stage findings, this pilot represents an important step in assessing the programme’s readiness for a larger-scale trial.

Expressions of Interest are now closed.