Schools across England are to receive funding to work with nurseries to boost the standard of early years education, the Department for Education has announced.

The new scheme will focus its efforts on sharing best practice and collaborative working to transform the quality of pre-school education, ensuring that youngsters can successfully transition from nursery to primary school.

According to the DfE, there is ample evidence that stresses the importance of pre-school education.

For example, children from disadvantaged backgrounds can be as much as 19 months behind their affluent peers when starting primary school.

Research shows that if these youngsters are successfully engaged with early on, they can lessen the attainment gap between them and their peers.

“We know the first few years of a child’s life can be make or break in terms of how well they go on to do at school and beyond - and the sharing of expertise and best practice is vital to driving innovation and raising standards,” said Sam Gyimah, minister for childcare.

“This is a fantastic example of local schools, nurseries and private providers pulling together to improve the fantastic services on offer to families, helping their children to thrive.”

The DfE said that the government is of the opinion that the sharing of best practice is one of the most effective ways in which educators at all levels can transform standards.

This latest initiative is the latest in a number of endeavours delivered over the years to enhance the quality of early years education.

Other notable developments since 2010 include introducing early years teachers and expanding free early years education to 40 per cent of two-year-olds.

Again, the focus of these developments, especially the latter, is geared towards narrowing the gap between poor and wealthy families.