As the 2025-2026 academic year ended, it felt only right to sit down with a sharpened pencil, a fresh page, and the slightly theatrical seriousness of an end of term report for the team and the work of Coram Hempsall’s. And this year, we have been marked against the subjects that matter most: implementation, sufficiency, data, outcomes, value, transparency, childminding, leadership, partnership, and joy in the middle.

The early years and childcare system hasn’t suddenly become simple, the challenges haven’t disappeared, far from it. The report recognises clarity, persistence, practical ideas, and a steady insistence that reform only matters when it works for children, families, providers and local places.

1. Implementation: excellent progress, now keep going.

Coram Hempsall’s has consistently reminded the sector that 2026 is the real test of childcare reform. The announcements may have landed, the guidance may have been issued, and the policy machinery may have moved at pace, but the real assessment happens in practice. Can local authorities and providers make it work? Can families access what they need? Can the system cope while being rebuilt? This subject receives full marks for keeping everyone focused on delivery, not just declaration.

2. Childcare sufficiency: strong evidence of market awareness.

There has been no sitting at the back of the classroom on childcare sufficiency. Coram Hempsall’s has continued to argue that local authorities need to understand, shape and manage their childcare markets actively. Observing is not enough. Local areas need to know where demand is growing, where provision is fragile, where families face barriers, and where strategic intervention will make the biggest difference. A very strong piece of work, with particular credit for practical application.

3. Data: uses evidence for improvement, not display.

In data, the report is especially positive. The message has been clear: data should not be collected merely to decorate a dashboard or satisfy a compliance requirement. It should help identify need earlier, inform investment, guide workforce planning, and support better decisions in real time. Coram Hempsall’s scores highly here for treating data as a tool for action, insight and fairness.

4. Outcomes: keeps eyes firmly on children’s lives.

Activity is not achievement, and attendance is not impact. This has been one of the clearest lessons of the year. The strongest systems are not those that simply count programmes, meetings or places, but those that ask whether children’s lives are improving. Coram Hempsall’s earns full marks for insisting that commissioning, funding and partnership should be judged by the difference they make.

5. Resources: thoughtful, targeted and value conscious.

The year’s work has shown a mature understanding that more resource is always welcome, but better use of resource is essential. The emphasis has been on targeting support intelligently, commissioning wisely, and using evidence to improve value for money. This is not a call for austerity by another name; it is a call for decisions that are honest, informed and focused on impact.

6. Funding transparency: asks the right questions.

On childcare funding, Coram Hempsall’s has been appropriately curious, constructive and challenging. Welcoming scrutiny of hidden charges is important, but so too is recognising the wider pressure within the funding model. Families need clarity, providers need sustainability, and local systems need enough transparency to understand what is really happening. Good questioning, strong analysis, and no easy answers pretended.

7. Childminders: celebrates the magic and names the reality.

This term’s report gives particular praise for recognising childminders as essential members of the early years and childcare community. Their work is flexible, relational and deeply rooted in family life, yet too often under-recognised. Coram Hempsall’s has celebrated childminders’ contribution while also acknowledging the pressures they face, and have moved to work closely with Coram Pacey as part of the new Coram Centre for Childcare and Early Years. A warm, accurate and much-needed assessment.

8. The middle: shows resilience, perspective and joy.

A pleasing cross-curricular strength has been the continued attention to the idea of the middle. Whether in career, age, leadership, policy or personal life, the middle is not simply a place to pass through. It can be a place of perspective, usefulness, steadiness and joy. James scores well for bringing humanity into system thinking and reminding us that resilience often grows in the places we underestimate, in his book Find Joy in the Middle.

9. Leadership: reflective, practical and calm under pressure.

Leadership has been another high-scoring subject. The tone has not been about heroic certainty or endless urgency. Instead, it has encouraged leaders to pause, reflect, think systemically and then act practically. This balance matters. Early years and family support systems need leaders who can hold complexity without becoming paralysed by it, and who can move from analysis to action without losing sight of people.

10. Partnership: understands that no one graduates alone.

Finally, partnership receives full marks. Across the year, the message has been that Best Start in Life ambitions will only be achieved through collaboration between local authorities, providers, health services, family hubs, schools, childminders, communities and families themselves. The best report cards are never earned alone. They reflect the quality of relationships, shared purpose and the willingness to solve problems together.

Overall comment.

Coram Hempsall’s has had an impressive term. It has shown deep subject knowledge, strong sector awareness, and a commendable ability to translate national ambition into local action. There is still plenty of homework for the system as a whole: sufficiency pressures, workforce challenges, funding questions, safeguarding expectations and the difficult business of implementation will all continue into the next term. But the direction is clear.

Final mark: 10/10. Not for perfection, because early years and childcare is far too real for that. The mark is for contribution, clarity and commitment: positively all things early years and childcare, with the sleeves rolled up, the questions sharpened, and the focus where it belongs, on better opportunities for children and families.