The revision follows a review of the 2007 standards conducted by the Teaching Agency, which recommended that they be reduced from 39 to eight. The new draft standards were consulted on earlier this year; the final version takes into account responses from the sector.

The revised standards will be implemented from September.

The interim report of the Nutbrown Review, published in March, raised the possibility of replacing EYPS with an 'early years initial teacher education route' due to perceived tensions between gaining EYPS and Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). Pat Brunton explains why, despite the Nutbrown recommendations, EYPS is still a positive career progression route.